SC asks Chief Justices of HCs to constitute special benches for expeditious trial of

criminal cases involving MPs and MLAs

In a significant order, issued on Thursday, the SC has asked High Courts of various states to
form special benches for expediting the trials pending against MPs and MLAs. The 3J Bench,
headed by J.Ramana, requested the concerned Chief Justices to actively take up the cases
pending for long periods solely due to judicial delays. Many of the cases stay unrevived after
interim stays had been ordered a long time back. The special benches must be headed by the
Chief Justices of the High Courts, effectively monitoring the progress of the trials. After
listing the cases, the respective courts must decide whether the stay on the cases must be
continued. Where a case has been stayed for more than six months, the proceedings must
recommence, notwithstanding the stay. In cases where the stay order is deemed necessary,
courts must resort to hearing the cases on a day-to-day basis, and dispose of the cases within
two weeks, without unnecessary adjournments; the 18 -page order mentioned.

The order has also asked the Chief Justices to submit an action plan on the number of courts
and infrastructure required to dispose of the cases. The action plans are to be prepared based
on the number of cases pending against the MPs/MLAs in the respective cases, the number of
judges available to preside over the proceedings along with the cases assigned to them and
their tenures.

As per records, 2500 cases are pending against sitting legislators alone in the country. The
order also mentions that about 175 cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act and 14 cases
under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 are pending against sitting/former
legislators.

The decision comes in a PIL filed by BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, seeking
speedy trials on criminal cases pending against sitting and former lawmakers. The Apex
Court decision can be seen as a welcome move in the background of the increasing rates of
criminalization of politics in the nation.