Parliamentary reports can’t be challenged in court: Supreme Court

Parliamentary reports can be used and relied upon in court but their contents cannot be challenged because it would affect the privilege of elected members to speak their mind freely inside the House, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Wednesday in a case related to clinical drug trials.

Such reports are not conclusive but persuasive, the bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said. Facts culled from such reports would have to be proved in court independently by leading evidence, the bench said.

The court can take judicial notice of the facts stated in such reports, but would not allow them to be challenged for their veracity or otherwise. “… Constitutional obligation persuades us to take the view that the Parliamentary Standing Committee Report or any Parliamentary Committee Report can be taken judicial notice of and regarded as admissible in evidence, but it can neither be impinged nor challenged,” the court said.


A five-judge bench of the court had been asked by a two-judge bench to answer this reference in a case related to the trial of a controversial cervical cancer vaccine on tribal women in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat in 2012, which had been challenged by social activist Kalpana Mehta. The court is yet to take a call on her plea for compensation and guidelines for all such clinical trials in the future.