30% of criminal cases against MPS, MLAS pending trial, SC told
NEW DELHI: Nearly a third of the criminal cases against elected representatives in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies have been pending for at least five years, said a report tabled in the Supreme Court which is hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) on fast-tracking criminal trials against sitting and former Members of Parliament and Legislative Assemblies and Councils.
Presenting a compilation to the court based on reports filed by 20 states and Union territories, senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, who is assisting the court in the matter as amicus curiae (friend of the court), said that in these regions, a total of 3,096 criminal cases are pending against MPS/MLAS (both sitting and former) out of which 962 have been pending for over five years.
He also separately presented the pending cases investigated/ tried by central investigation agencies such as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and National Investigation Agency (NIA). According to his report, ED cases are pending against 51 MPS (and former MPS) and 71 MLAS and Members of Legislative Councils (and former members). The ED report did not specify how many of these are related to sitting members.
CBI informed the court through a separate report that 121 cases are pending trial against MPS/MLAS (and former MPS/MLAS) of which 51 are MPS (14 sitting and 37 former; five of the members are deceased) and 112 MLAS (34 sitting and 78 former; including nine deceased). NIA is only probing four cases of which two involve MPS/MLAS. The only agency which claimed there were no cases involving MPS/MLAS was the Narcotics Bureau.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and justices Hima Kohli and JB Pardiwala, after taking note of the amicus report, posted the matter for hearing next week.
Hansaria told the court: “The matter is serious as nearly 30% cases against MPS/MLAS are pending over five years.” This was the 17th report submitted by the amicus in a PIL filed by lawyer and Delhi BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay in 2016.
Among the states/uts which submitted details, the highest number of cases pending over five years was reported in Odisha (323 out of 454 cases) followed by Maharashtra (169 out of 482 cases). Delhi reported 93 cases of which 27 are pending for over five years. Maharashtra (482) reported the highest number of overall cases.