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18. It would be instructive to refer to the following extracts from a lecture on Parliamentary Privileges by Viscount Kilmer - The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, [Delivered on May 4, 1959 at the University of London] :-

"The first question which springs to the mind is, `What precisely is Parliamentary Privilege?'- and its question which is not altogether easy to answer.
A privilege is essentially a private advantage in law enjoyed by a person or a class of persons or an association which is not enjoyed by others. Looked at from this aspect, privilege consists of that bundle of advantages which members of both Houses enjoy or have at one time enjoyed to a greater extent than their fellow citizens: freedom to access to Westminster, freedom from arrest or process, freedom from liability in the courts for what they say or do in Parliament. From another point of view, Parliamentary Privilege is the special dignity and authority and enjoyed by each House in its corporate capacity such as its right to control its own proceedings and to punish both members and strangers for contempt. I think these are really two sides of the coin. Any Parliament, it is to function properly, must have some privileges which will ensure freedom (to a greater or lesser degree) from outside interference. If the business of Parliament is of supreme importance, then nobody else must be allowed to impede it, whether by throwing fireworks from the gallery or bringing actions against members for what they say in debate.
Parliamentary privilege and immunity with respect to the exercise of that privilege are founded upon necessity. Parliamentary privilege and the breadth of individual privileges encompassed by that term are accorded to members of the House of Parliament and the legislative assemblies because they are judges necessary to the discharge of their legislative function.
The contents and extent of parliamentary privileges have evolved with reference to their necessity. In Precedents of Proceedings in the House of Commons, Vol. I, 3rd Ed. (London: T Payne, 1796), John Hatsell defined at p. 1 the privileges of parliament as including those rights which are absolutely necessary for the due execution of its power". It is important to note that, in this context, the justification of necessity is applied in a general sense. That is, general categories of privilege are deemed necessary to the discharge of the Assembly's function. Each specific instance of the exercise of a general privilege needs to be shown to be necessary."

23. Y.K. Sabharwal, C.J. (majority opinion) in Para. 471 of Raja Ram Pal's case (supra.) has quoted from Parliamentary Privilege- First Report (Lord Nicholas) which describes Parliamentary Privilege as:

"Parliamentary privilege consists of the rights and immunities which the two Houses of Parliament and their Members and officers possess to enable them to carry out their parliamentary functions effectively. Without this protection Members would be handicapped in performing their parliamentary duties, and the authority of Parliament itself in confronting the executive and as a forum for expressing the anxieties of citizens would be correspondingly diminished."
"The distinctive mark of a Parliamentary Privilege is its ancillary character. They are rights which a sovereign legislature must possess for the due execution of its powers. Some of them are enjoyed by individual members of the House."

24. The observations cited above make it amply clear that the exercise of legislative privileges is not an end in itself. They are supposed to be exercised in order to ensure that legislative functions can be exercised effectively, without undue obstructions. These functions include the right of members to speak and vote on the floor of the house as well as the proceedings of various legislative committees. In this respect, privileges can be exercised to protect persons engaged as administrative employees as well. The important consideration for scrutinising the exercise of legislative privileges is whether the same was necessary to safeguard the integrity of legislative functions. We are also expected to look to precedents involving the British House of Commons. The most elaborate list of Parliamentary Privileges exercised by the British House of Commons has been compiled by Pritiosh Roy in his work Parliamentary Privilege in India which has been quoted in Raja Ram Pal's case (supra.) at Paragraphs 94-97 and has been reproduced below: