SC indicates to pass orders on completing pending trials in cases against MPs, MLAs

The Supreme Court on Wednesday indicated that it will pass orders for concluding trials against pending cases of former and sitting MPs and MLAs within one year and ask the High Courts to submit an action plan for its implementation.

A bench of Justices N V Ramana, Surya Kant and Hrishikesh Roy said that the court would seek a proper blue print from Chief Justices of the High Courts on how to go about disposing of pending trials.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, also submitted that there must be time bound disposal of these cases. The cases must reach its logical conclusion in a time bound manner, he said.

The bench also expressed concern over allocation of all pending cases against the legislators to only one special court in a State, saying they may not be accessible.

Senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, acting as amicus curiae, suggested for that each district in a State must be assigned one court to deal with the pending cases. He also pointed out that there was no uniformity with regard to special courts taking up cases pertaining to legislators.

The court also noted that there were 4442 cases pending against former and sitting legislators but the figure has gone up on adding pendening cases under special laws.

Hansaria also pointed out that a big issue was that witnesses don't turn up and summons are not served. "We need to appoint a particular officer and make him responsible for carrying this out," he said.

He also suggested that those cases, punishable with life sentence, must be given priority, followed up those cases having punishment with imprisonment of seven and more years.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for PIL petitioner Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, submitted that judicial officers may be appointed in accordance with the number of pending cases, so as not to allow wastage of resources.

In a note prepared by Hansaria, along with advocate Sneha Kalita, he said the High Court should consider mechanism for expeditious trial of criminal cases against MPs and MLAs under special statutes namely the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, Companies Act, 2013, Negotiable Instrument Act, 1881 etc.