The 14th Lok Sabha will go down in history with the dubious distinction of having expelled as many as 11 members, the latest being Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Babubhai Katara last week.
The lawmaker from Dohad in Gujarat was axed for being allegedly involved in a human trafficking case which came to light last year, shocking lawmakers and people alike.
Two years back, ten members from the House as also one from the Rajya Sabha were expelled for misconduct in accepting money for raising questions in what has come to be known as the 'cash-for-query' scam exposed by a sting operation on a news channel.
Parliamentary history was then created when the two Houses, acting swiftly on the recommendations of the Committees that went into the scam adopted motions for their expulsion terming their actions 'unethical' and 'unbecoming' of MPs and their continuance 'untenable'.
It was a precedent-setting decision in over 50 years.
There was only one case of expulsion for a similar misconduct in 1951 when the Provincial Parliament removed H G Mudgal for accepting money from Bombay Bullion traders for work in Parliament.
The 14th Lok Sabha has also seen expulsion of a different kind.
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee was expelled by the Communist Party of India-Marxist after he failed to resign from the high office after the Left withdrew support to the Congress-led coalition.
Chatterjee was also a target of attack from the CPI-M, apparently prompting him to remark that 'this is the worst period of my life'.
There have been problems galore for the 14th Lok Sabha, which also witnessed yet another committee being formed after another expose concerning MP Local Area Development Scheme.
It has also seen, perhaps for the first time, stalling of the House over what has come to be known as 'tainted' Ministers, an issue raised by the Opposition concerning several ministers in the Manmohan Singh government being allegedly involved in corruption and criminal cases.
One of the members of the House and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren was convicted for life in a murder case. Soren's was a unique case from being a Cabinet Minister straight to Tihar jail.
Soren has since been discharged and is now the chief minister of Jharkhand.
Two MPs -- Mohammed Shahabuddin and Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav -- have been in jail for long time in connection with criminal cases.
The House could have perhaps witnessed for the first time the nationality of a member being brought into question.
Congress member from Assam M K Subba's citizenship was questioned by the BJP but the Speaker ruled that it was not for the House to decide in the matter and the member dismissed the charges, claiming that he was a citizen of India.
The Parliamentary Committee, which recommended the extreme action against Katara, admitted that 'certain aberrations' had crept into the system, but saw no substitute to democracy.
It held that the country is in 'difficult times' due to growing cases of misconduct by legislators but that there was no substitute for democracy, an 'Utopian concept' in the neighbourhood, a Parliamentary panel felt.
The Committee, headed by senior Congress MP V Kishore Chandra Deo, said misconduct by legislators do tend to erode the credibility of legislative bodies as also the democratic form of government.
But, it said, when it comes to just and effective governance, there cannot be any substitute for democracy.
"While in our neighbouring countries democracy has always been a sort of Utopian concept, democracy is vibrant and kicking in this country," the report tabled in Lok Sabha said.
The panel also observed that while on one side there have been increasing instances of misconduct, on the other, unlike in earlier times, the fraternity of legislators has been 'proactive in taking quick punitive action against their own wayward brethren'.
