Can Mahua Moitra be expelled again for the same reason?

Question

In October 2023, a Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha, Mahua Moitra, was formally accused of "cash for query", i.e. taking money from someone in exchange for asking questions for them in the Parliament.

Later that year, she was expelled from the Lok Sabha following a Parliamentary Committee decision and a vote of the house. More details and references on wikipedia.

However, she was sworn in as a member again following the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Well, as it stands, the Lok Sabha had convicted her as guilty of indiscipline (whatever that means), and that suspension still stands. So can the Lok Sabha expel her again for the same reason?

Answer 1

Article 20 (1) (Protection in respect of conviction for offences) of the Indian constitution states:

(1) No person shall be convicted of any offence except for violation of a law in force at the time of the commission of the Act charged as an offence, nor be subjected to a penalty greater than that which might have been inflicted under the law in force at the time of the commission of the offence.

and Article 20 (2) states:

(2) No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once.

Ms. Mahua Moitra was investigated and punished by a Parliamentary Committee and she was expelled from Parliament on December 2023. So from December 2023 to June 2024, she was no longer a Member of Parliament for nearly 6 months. She was however, not barred from standing for election again. And so she fought another election and was re-elected again to the Lower House of the Parliament.

If she were to be expelled again, citing the same allegations against her, the ruling would fall foul of the two clauses of Article 20 -

1. A person cannot be prosecuted and punished again for the same crime. And,
2. A person cannot be punished to a penalty greater than what has been inflicted. (The punishment for Ms Mahua Moitra was temporary expulsion from Parliament, which she has already endured from December 2023 to June 2024, and not disqualification or barring her from elections).

Furthermore, when Mr. Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from Parliament, the Supreme Court of India made an interesting observation (but did not examine further) that it raised the question whether the rights of the voters in his constituency were being violated by his "unfair" disqualification. Ms. Mahua Moitra has also pleaded a similar argument in her petition to the Supreme Court, fighting against her expulsion.

It can be argued that Article 20 (2), however, only applies to judicial proceedings. But the Parliamentary Committee of Privileges is considered a semi-judicial body, and thus, in my personal opinion, such an argument will be ignored by the courts.