SPEED UP NETAS’ CRIMINAL TRIALS, SAYS APEX COURT

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Bihar and Kerala to set up special courts in each of their districts for the trial of pending criminal cases against present and former MPs and MLAs. Earlier in the day, the top court was informed that there were 4,122 criminal cases pending, some for over three decades, against present and former members of Parliament and legislative assemblies.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S. K. Kaul and K. M. Joseph passed the directions for setting up special courts in every district of the two states and also sought compliance reports from Patna and Kerala high courts by December 14. The apex court directed the high courts to send back cases from special courts, which were already constituted, to jurisdictional district courts.

Names of chief ministers of Punjab and Karnataka — Captain Amarinder Singh and H. D. Kumraswamy — along with a former chief minister found mention in the list submitted before the Supreme Court on Tuesday.