Fri. Mar 29th, 2024
Supreme Court of India

A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Sanjay Krishan Kaul and KM Joseph on Tuesday directed the setting up of special courts in each district of Bihar and Kerala to speedup trials in the pending criminal cases against former and present members of Parliament (MPs) and state assemblies(MLAs).

SC also ordered the special courts, that have already been set up in Bihar and Kerala, to submit detailed reports on the status of pending cases against the legislators. The two states have been directed to submit the status report to the SC by December 14.

The bench has given the liberty of constituting as many special courts as required in the districts of these two states for trial of cases against the legislators.

The Supreme Court also directed the sessions courts to try criminal cases pending against former and present MPs and MLAs on priority.  It has also asked to take up life term cases on a priority while hearing pending matters against MPs and MLAs.

A report was submitted by the amicus curiae, based on the information from the high courts. The highlights from the report are

  • 4122 cases being pending against the sitting and former MPs and MLAs.
  • Out of which, 440 cases involving life sentence are pending.
  • Of the total cases, 2324 cases are against MPs.
  • To ensure effective trials, there should be one designated sessions court and one magistrate court in each district.
  • The 12 designated courts set up in various states have not been functioning properly.

This direction from the SC came a year after it ordered special designated courts to fast track cases against MPs and MLAs.

CJI Ranjan Gogoi said that the bench has considered the report and added that the suggestions, listed in the report, should be tried out with certain modifications.

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