Earmark courts for pending cases against lawmakers: Supreme Court

NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked high courts to designate more courts to fasttrack the disposal of criminal cases pending against sitting and former lawmakers, pointing out that 430 such cases are about grave offences carrying up to life imprisonment as punishment.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi issued the directions after going through a report giving the current status of the pending cases. Submitted by senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, the amicus curiae in the matter, the report says that charges are yet to be framed against MPS and MLAS in 1,991 out of a total of 4,122 cases.

Calling the contents of the report “alarming, disturbing and scary,” the top court said more courts were needed to hear these matters. At present, 12 special courts in 11 states exclusively hold trials of cases against sitting and former lawmakers on the directions of the Supreme

Court to the state governments.

The bench — of CJI Gogoi and justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph — passed the order while hearing a petition seeking a lifetime ban on contesting elections for convicted lawmakers.

The bench asked the Bihar and Kerala high courts to start the process of identifying judges and assigning cases.

According to Hansaria’s report, one of the problems with trials was that witnesses and police officers found it difficult to travel long distances.

The court accepted Hansaria’s recommendations on the procedure to be followed by the courts — priority to cases involving “offences punishable with imprisonment for life/death” followed by “serious offences punishable with imprisonment of 5 years or more”.

According to the order, special courts in Kerala and Bihar have to submit a monthly report to the high courts about cases where the police have not yet filed charge sheets, and where trial courts have not framed charges.