New Delhi, Oct. 7 -- A seven-judge Supreme Court bench on Tuesday disposed of a nearly 22-year-old reference on the constitutional limits of legislative privileges as "infructuous", after noting that the Tamil Nadu assembly had withdrawn in 2004 the resolution that triggered the proceedings, leaving unanswered for now the larger questions concerning the interplay between legislative privilege and citizens' fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and comprising justices Aravind Kumar, Prashant Kumar Mishra, Joymalya Bagchi, Vipul M Pancholi, Shree Chandrashekhar and V Mohana, agreed with the submissions of the parties that no live controversy survived for adjudica...