Apex Court Directs All High Court Chief Justices to Formulate and Submit an Action Plan to Expeditiously Complete the Trials Against MPs and MLAs
(Judicial Quest News Network)
A three Judge Bench Comprising of Justices NV Ramana, Surya Kant and Harikesh Roy has on Wednesday issued the directions to Chief Justices of all High Courts to prepare an action plan in order to expeditiously deal with pending cases against Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of the legislative Assembly (MLAs)
The Chief Justices of High Courts while preparing the action plan
Should also consider, that in the event the trials are already on-going in an expeditious manner, whether transferring the same to a different Court would be necessary and appropriate.
It is also mentioned in the order to designate a Special Bench, comprising themselves and their designate, in order to monitor the progress of these trials.
The Chief Justices are requested to give their comments on the other suggestions of the Amicus Curiae for the purpose of expedient disposal of pending criminal cases against legislatures. Additional Suggestions, if any, may also be sent to the Supreme Court.
The action plan, with the comments and suggestions of the learned Chief Justices of the High Courts, are to be sent to the Secretary General of this Court, preferably within a week.
A copy may also be sent to the learned amicus curiae by way of email. The Registrar Generals of all the High Courts are directed to place a copy of this order and our earlier order dated 10.09.2020 before the learned Chief Justices of their respective High Courts forthwith, for necessary directions.
It is also said in the order that the plan for rationalization of the number of Special Courts necessary, with respect to the following aspects:
a. Total number of pending cases in each district
b. Required number of proportionate Special Courts
c. Number of Courts that are currently available
d. Number of Judges and the subject categories of the cases
e. Tenure of the Judges to be designated
f. Number of cases to be assigned to each Judge
g. Expected time for disposal of the cases
h. Distance of the Courts to be designated
i. Adequacy of infrastructure.
The Court said that the COVID-19 should not be an impediment to the compliance of this direction, as these matters could be conveniently heard through video conferencing.
Earlier The learned amicus curiae, Mr. Vijay Hansaria, Senior
Counsel, has submitted a supplementary report in addition to his
Report dated 08.09.2020, on the basis of the information furnished by 10 of the High Courts.
The supplementary report indicates that there are about 175 cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and 14 cases are pending under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 against sitting/former legislators (MPs and MLAs).
These are in addition to the 4442 criminal cases indicated to be pending as per the earlier report of the learned amicus dated 08.09.2020.
While passing the order, the Bench also remarked that special consideration is being given by the Court to this issue in view of the “rising wave of criminalization that was occurring in the politics in the country “and given the “Power that elected representatives (sitting or former) wield, to influence or hamper effective prosecution”.
The learned amicus has recorded his analysis of the data
Received from the High Courts in paragraph 3 of his supplementary
Report, which is reproduced below: “3. Analysis of cases pending also shows that a. There is no uniformity as to the setting Up of Special Courts for MPs/MLAs throughout the country.
b. In the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and West Bengal, there is one Special Court for all cases against MPs/MLAs. In the State of Telangana apart from Special
Court for MPs/MLAs, cases is also pending before Special Court, CBI. In all other States, these cases are pending in respective jurisdictional courts.
c. There is also no clarity as to the courts which are trying offences under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. For example, in the State of Madhya Pradesh (where 21 cases are pending) and in Karnataka (where 20 cases are pending) all these cases are pending before Special Judge (MP/ MLA) at Bhopal and Bangaluru respectively. In State of Telangana, these cases are before Special Judge, CBI at Hyderabad. In Delhi, cases under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, registered both by Delhi Police and
by CBI are before the Special Court MP/MLA. Similar is the situation with regard to offences punishable under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.”
The Court passed the directions in a batch of matters including a PIL filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking the expeditious disposal of cases against legislators, both sitting and former (Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and ors. V. Union of India).
Amicus Curiae Vijay Hansaria has raised concern that in several cases, the proceedings have been stayed by the High Courts, thereby contributing to the case’s pendency.
The matter has been listed to be taken up after 2 weeks.
[Read the Order]
