The Supreme Court bench hearing this case was led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud (File).
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Thursday re-directed High Courts to initiate suo moto proceedings towards expeditious disposal of pending cases against elected legislators – MPs and MLAs – from their respective states. The Chief Justices of these courts have been told to monitor settlement of cases.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) for establishment of special courts to decide criminal cases related to public servants and members of the judiciary “within one year… and to debar convicted persons” from holding posts in legislative, executive and/or judicial bodies “for life”.
The PIL referred to High Courts’ data to point out that 5,175 cases against MPs and MLAs are still pending, of which 40 per cent, or 2,116, have been open for at least five years.
On the petitioners’ first request, a bench led by Supreme Court Chief Justice DY Chandrachud left it to the High Courts of each state (in which the case is being heard) to monitor developments.
The court observed that it would be difficult to frame uniform guidelines.
The hearing for the second – regarding electoral ban on convicted persons – will continue.
The plea also asked no adjournments be given “except in rare and exceptional circumstances”, and that in case of delays bail be cancelled. Trial courts have now told not to adjourn cases unless necessary.
The plea was made in the context of a 2015 judgement by the Supreme Court, which said “… in relation to sitting MPs and MLAs, who have charges framed against them… the trial shall be concluded speedily… and, in no case, later than one year from date of framing of charge(s)”.
READ | Supreme Court To Hear Plea On Trial Against MPs, MLAs, Nearly 5,000 Cases Pending
The court had also said: “… as far as possible, trial shall be on day-to-day basis. If, for some extraordinary circumstances, court is not able to conclude trial within one year… (it will) submit report to Chief Justice of respective High Court, indicating reasons for not adhering to time limit…”
Earlier, in compliance with a Supreme Court order in this case, various High Courts had reported the number of pending cases (as of December 2018 and November 2022) against MPs and MLAs.
According to these numbers, the maximum number of such pending cases are in Uttar Pradesh.
There were 992 unresolved cases in 2018. Last year this number was 1,377, and 719 of these had been undecided for over five years. Among the larger states, others with such high numbers are Bihar; there were 546 pending cases as of November and 381 have been in limbo for over five years.
Per the data other states with over 100 cases pending for over five years are Maharashtra (169) and Odisha (323), while Tamil Nadu has 60, Karnataka 61, Madhya Pradesh 51, and Jharkhand 72.
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