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Supreme Court to hear Centre's review plea in JMM pay-off case

The Supreme Court has decided to hear in the open court a petition by the Union government seeking review of its judgment in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha pay-off case involving several politicians including former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao.

The decision was taken by a five-member Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice A S Anand when the review petition came up for preliminary hearing. The other judges of the bench were S P Bharucha, K Venkataswamy, B N Kripal and S Rajendrababu.

In the judgment sought to be reviewed now, a five-member bench headed by S C Agarwal (since retired) had held that the members of Parliament who allegedly received bribes and consequently voted in Parliament on the non-confidence motion against the then Narasimha Rao government, were immune from prosecution under Article 105 of the Constitution but those who received bribe and did not vote were liable for prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The judgment also held that the bribe-givers were not immune from the prosecution.

UNI

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