Constitution Section 194 — Powers, privileges, etc., of the Houses of Legislatures and of the members and committees thereof
Part VI — THE STATES — and their Members
Constitutional
Summary
Members of a State Legislature have the right to speak freely during its proceedings, as long as they follow the rules set by the Constitution and the Legislature’s own procedures. No member can be taken to court for anything they say or any vote they give in the Legislature or its committees, and no one can be sued for publishing official reports or records of the Legislature’s proceedings. Beyond these protections, the specific powers and privileges of the Legislature, its members, and its committees are to be decided by the Legislature itself through law, and until that happens, they remain the same as they were just before the Forty-fourth Amendment came into effect in 1978. These same rules also apply to anyone else who has the constitutional right to speak or take part in the Legislature’s proceedings, not just to elected members.
Official Text
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution and to the rules and standing orders regulating the procedure of the Legislature, there shall be freedom of speech in the Legislature of every State.
(2) No member of the Legislature of a State shall be liable to any proceedings in any court in respect of anything said or any vote given by him in the Legislature or any committee thereof, and no person shall be so liable in respect of the publication by or under the authority of a House of such a Legislature of any report, paper, votes or proceedings.
(3) In other respects, the powers, privileges and immunities of a House of the Legislature of a State, and of the members and the committees of a House of such Legislature, shall be such as may from time to time be defined by the Legislature by law, and, until so defined, shall be those of that House and of its members and committees immediately before the coming into force of section 26 of the Constitution (Forty-fourth Amendment) Act, 1978.
(4) The provisions of clauses (1),
(2) and
(3) shall apply in relation to persons who by virtue of this Constitution have the right to speak in, and otherwise to take part in the proceedings of, a House of the Legislature of a State or any committee thereof as they apply in relation to members of that Legislature.