Separate court for politicians

The Supreme Court’s order asking the Centre to set up special courts to exclusively hear cases against lawmakers should have created a flutter in the political class. As the court rightly noted, cases against politicians stretch for two decades, by when they have completed multiple terms in office. But instead of perturbation, the political class has the feeling of déjà vu. The noose against the criminally-inclined politicians has been tightening by the day. The apex court, in fact, was dusting off an old order to trial courts to complete trials in heinous offences against elected politicians within a year. However, due to a gap between intention and implementation, there are no statistics on the number of tainted politicians convicted so far.  

The latest exercise by the court does have the potential for cleaning up the system because of matching enthusiasm by the Election Commission (EC) to keep out the warlords and bahubalis from the electoral arena. The data on parliamentarians is sobering enough to warrant a court-EC mandated special drive — almost 34 per cent have criminal cases, of which about 20 per cent are of a heinous nature. The first set of impediments to this endeavour is institutional. States are unenthusiastic about funding special courts for politicians; and, there is an acute shortage of judges, partly because of the delay in finalisation of the Memorandum of Procedure for the appointment of more judges.

The second set of issues is conscientious and philosophical in character. As per court records, a mere 1,500 people with criminal cases contested the elections. Given the way justice is generally delivered, is it prudent to set aside resources, human and material, to expressly try such a small lot? As a first step, the communication gulf between the judiciary and the EC needs to be bridged. The EC is often unaware about convictions, and politicians unabashedly continue in their posts. However, the signs are propitious. The EC has publicly come out in favour of a lifetime ban for convicted netas. With both the courts and the EC on the same page, it should not be long before criminals find themselves outcasts in politics.