Law's delay

Every election in India — from the local bodies to the Assembly and parliamentary ones — throws up a horrifyingly disturbing story: that of a huge percentage of the elected representatives facing criminal cases. This is such a routine occurrence now that the story gets lost in the din surrounding the winners and losers and analyses of the poll planks at play. This time, 51 per cent of UP’s elected MLAs have criminal cases against them, with 39 per cent booked for heinous ones as murder, kidnapping, and crime against women, as per the Association for Democratic Rights (ADR). Punjab is no better, with half of the legislators entering the Assembly charged with crime and 20 per cent of them accused of serious violations of law. Notably, the SAD fielded three times more such nominees in 2022 than the last outing.

However, what is more disturbing is that but for some activists and NGOs — particularly the ADR that regularly raises the matter with concrete data — fighting the uphill battle, the authorities concerned have failed to get to the bottom of this shameful trend or reverse it. It is a question of the moral stature of our lawmakers. Whether those in the poll fray are actually criminals or just victims of rivals accusing them wrongfully of misdemeanour, should be clear to the electorate.

To exercise their franchise judiciously, the voters must be aware of the candidates’ true criminality status. And, this can come only from a speedy trial and delivery of justice. However, sadly, despite the Supreme Court in 2015 directing that the trial in cases against sitting and former lawmakers should be conducted on a daily basis and concluded in one year from the date of the framing of charge(s), little headway has been made in the matter. In view of this order, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had sought details of the pendency of such cases in the two states. As of February last year, it was reported that trial was going on in cases against a mere 12 per cent of Punjab’s sitting and former MLAs and MPs. The common man deserves better!

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