Furnish details on special courts to try politicians by August 28: SC to Centre

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 21

Having ordered setting up of 12 special courts to try politicians involved in criminal cases, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to inform it about how many such courts have been constituted and have actually started functioning.

A Bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi sought to know if these special courts were courts of sessions or magisterial courts, their territorial jurisdiction and the number of cases pending before each of them.

The Bench, which also included Justice Navin Sinha and Justice KM Joseph, asked if the government intended to set up more special courts.

Directing the government to place these details before it, the Bench posted the matter for hearing on next Tuesday. The Bench said the government affidavit contained “incomplete information” as it said the process of compiling the information received from the states was on.

Acting on a PIL filed by Delhi BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, the Supreme Court had in December last year ordered the Centre to set up 12 special courts to exclusively try cases involving politicians. The special courts were supposed to have become operational from March 1. The Centre had earlier earmarked Rs 7.8 crore for the purpose.

The court had then said the issue of imposing a life ban on convicted politicians would be taken up for later.

The Bench had earlier pointed out that criminal cases against many politicians remained pending for more than 20 years, allowing them to complete four terms in Parliament or state Assemblies. In such a situation, demanding a ban on them towards the fag end of their political career may not achieve the desired objective, it had indicated.

The Delhi High Court has already set up two special courts to try lawmakers facing criminal cases from March 1, 2018. In an administrative order dated February 23, the High Court has designated Delhi High Judicial Service officer Arvind Kumar and Delhi Judicial Service Officer Samar Vishal as Special Judges to preside over the two special courts in the National Capital to try lawmakers.

But the Bench asked Delhi High Court Registrar General to file an affidavit by August 28 indicating the number of cases transferred to these two special courts.

The Bench also asked the Centre to furnish details regarding the queries posed by it on November 1 last year when it had sought to know how many of 1,581 cases involving MLAs and MPs—as declared by them at the time of filing of the nomination papers in the 2014 elections—had been disposed of within one year as prescribed by the court’s order dated March 10, 2014.

It had also sought to know how many of these cases ended in acquittal or conviction of MPs/MLAs. It also wanted to know if any further criminal cases had been lodged against any present or former legislator and, if so, the details thereof, including details about disposal of such cases between 2014 and 2017.

A report by ADR – which analyses affidavits filed by candidates at the time of filing of nominations – said 188 Lok Sabha MPs and 44 Rajya Sabha MPs had criminal cases pending against them. The number of legislators having criminal cases pending against them in various states is: Maharashtra (160), Uttar Pradesh (143), Bihar (141), West Bengal (107), Kerala (87), Andhra Pradesh (84), Tamil Nadu (75), Karnataka (73) Madhya Pradesh (70) and Telangana (67).