Underlining that expeditious trials of tainted politicians is still an elusive affair, the Supreme Court has requested high courts to review within two months all such cases where trials have been stayed.
The apex court has also said that chief justices of high courts shall designate a special bench, comprising themselves and their designate, to monitor the progress of the trials against sitting and former MPs.
By a judgment in 2014, the Supreme Court had set a deadline of one year for completion of trials against legislators in serious crimes and corruption cases, while issuing a slew of directives to expedite it by setting up special courts.
By an order released on Thursday, a bench, headed by Justice NV Ramana, took further steps to ensure implementation of this judgment even as it lamented that “there has been no substantial improvement in the situation when it comes to disposal of pending criminal cases against sitting/former legislators – MPs and MLAs.”
After a hearing on Wednesday, the bench has now asked the chief justices of all high courts to list forthwith such criminal cases which have failed to proceed because of the higher court orders.
“We further request the learned Chief Justices of all the High Courts to list forthwith all pending criminal cases involving sitting/former legislators (MPs and MLAs), particularly those wherein a stay has been granted, before an appropriate bench(es) comprising of the learned Chief Justice and/or their designates,” said the court.
Upon being listed, the bench said, the high court must first decide whether the stay granted, if any, should continue, keeping in view the apex court’s judgment of 2018. This judgment had held that if a case has been stayed for more than six months by the high court, the trial court may resume proceedings notwithstanding the stay.
The bench added in its order: “In the event that a stay is considered necessary, the Court should hear the matter on a day-¬to-day basis and dispose of the same expeditiously, preferably within a period of two months, without any unnecessary adjournment.”
The top court further said the COVID-19 pandemic should not be an impediment to the compliance of this direction, as these matters could be conveniently heard through video-conferencing.
According to the statistics submitted in the court by amicus curiae and senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, politicians across the nation are facing criminal trials in 4,442 cases. Of these, sitting MPs and MLAs are undertrials in as many as 2,556 such matters.
Trial in 352 cases against sitting and former MPs and MLAs have been held up because of the stay orders by higher courts.
As many as 413 cases relate to offences punishable with life imprisonment, of which sitting legislators are accused in 174 cases. A total of 175 cases are pending under the Prevention of Corruption Act and 14 are under Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The report by the amicus curiae, based on data collected from various high courts, was filed in pursuance of an order passed by the top court on a PIL of BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay. The plea has sought speedy trial of criminal cases against sitting and former lawmakers.
On the need to have more number of special courts, the bench requested chief justices to submit an action plan for rationalisation of the number of special courts after taking stock of the statistics pertaining to pending cases in each district.
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