http://dx.doi.org/10.59704/240cf5e205bd12a9 https://verfassungsblog.de/privileges-constrained/ Privileges Constrained - On the Indian Supreme Court’s Rejection of Bribery as Parliamentary Privilege Kalra, Kartik eng 2024-03-13 electronic resource text/html ddc:342 Corruption Corruption Immunity Indian Parliament Indian Supreme Court Indien Parliamentarism Corruption Indien Verfassungsblog Verfassungsblog--2366-7044 CC BY-SA 4.0 Last week, the Indian Supreme Court delivered its judgment in Sita Soren v. Union of India, holding that parliamentary privilege – the constitutionally recognized legal immunity of legislators – does not extend to bribe-taking for exercising their legislative vote or speech a certain way. In this blog post, I discuss the Court’s formulation of the essentiality test, as well as its conclusions on the availability of privilege for bribe-taking. I argue that while the ruling can strengthen democratic institutions since it protects the integrity of legislative processes, certain risks in the essentiality test’s composition – which risk depriving important legislative functions of privilege – must be addressed.