(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act and to rules and standing orders regulating the procedure of the Legislature, there shall be freedom of speech in every Provincial Legislature, and no member of the Legislature shall be liable to any proceeding 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 nr under the authority of a Chamber of such a Legislature of any report, paper, votes or proceedings.

(2) In other respects the privileges of members of a Chamber of a Provincial Legislature shall be such as may from time to time be defined by Act of the Provincial Legislature, and, until so defined, shall be such as were immediately before the [commencement of this Part of this Act enjoyed by members of the Legislative Council of the Province.]¹

(3) Nothing in any existing Indian law, and, notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this section, nothing in this Act, shall be construed as conferring, or empowering any Legislature to confer on a Chamber thereof or on both Chambers sitting together or any committee or officer of the Legislature, the status of a court, or any punitive or disciplinary powers other than the power to remove or exclude persons infringing, the rules or standing orders, or otherwise behaving in a disorderly manner.

(4) Provision may be made by an Act of the Provincial Legislature for the punishment, on conviction before a Court, of persons who refuse to give evidence or produce documents before a committee of a Chamber when duly required by the chairman of a committee so to do:

Provided that any such Act shall have effect subject to such rules for regulating the attendance before such committees of persons who are, or have been, in the service of the Crown in India, and safeguarding confidential matter from disclosure, as may be made by the Governor exercising his individual judgment.

(5) The provisions of sub-sections (1) and (2) of this section shall apply in relation to persons who by virtue of this Act have the right to speak in and otherwise take part in the proceedings of a Chamber as they apply in relation to members of the Legislature.

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1. For the words within brackets, the following were substituted, by the India (Provisional Constitution) Order, 1947.--

'Establishment of the Dominion enjoyed by members of that Chamber, or in the case of West Bengal and East. Punjab, by members of the Provincial Legislative Assemblies of Bengal and the Punjab, respectively."