HC asks authorities to ensure speedy disposal of cases against MPs, MLAs

Advocate Rajshekhar Rao, appearing for the Delhi High Court, said that six cases have been disposed of from October till date of which two were decided by a sessions judge and rest four by the magistrate.

The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the authorities to take steps for the speedy disposal of the cases against the MPs and MLAs while noting that there has been some progress in the rate of disposal of the cases.

It asked the Centre and the Delhi government to file a status report with regard to the cases disposed in December 2020 and January 2021 while posting the matter hearing on April 18.

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh, while hearing a plea initiated by itself on the directions of the Supreme Court to all high courts for monitoring the pending criminal cases against MPs and MLAs, was informed by the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma, that only 13 cases are pending.

Advocate Rajshekhar Rao, appearing for the Delhi High Court, said that six cases have been disposed of from October till date of which two were decided by a sessions judge and rest four by the magistrate.

Following this, the court said, “It appears that there is a progress in court cases. We expect that the concerned respondents will take measure for speedy disposal of matters before the trial court. We expect that the witnesses be produced so that the rest of the matters are also disposed of”.

It asked the Centre and the Delhi government to file a status report with regard to the cases disposed in December 2020 and January 2021 while posting the matter hearing on April 18.

The PIL was initiated after the apex court, on September 16, had asked the chief justices of all high courts to forthwith list before an appropriate bench all pending criminal cases involving sitting and former lawmakers where stay was granted.

The direction came on a petition which was filed in 2016 and raised the issue of inordinately delay in disposal of criminal cases against former and sitting lawmakers. While hearing the plea, SC had issued the direction after observing that there has been “no substantial improvement” in disposal of pending criminal cases against sitting and former lawmakers.

It directed the high courts of all the states that “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 month, without any unnecessary adjournment.”

Referring to a report placed before it in the matter, the top court had said that it indicated that about 175 cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and 14 cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 are pending against sitting or former lawmakers.

“These are in addition to the 4,442 criminal cases indicated to be pending as per the earlier report of the amicus dated September 8, 2020,” the Supreme Court noted while directing the chief justice of each high court to formulate and submit an action plan for rationalization of the number of special courts necessary.

It had said that the aspects to be considered, while making the action plan, were -- total number of pending cases in each district, required number of proportionate special courts, number of courts that are currently available, number of judges and the subject categories of the cases, tenure of the judges to be designated, number of cases to be assigned to each judge, expected time for disposal of the cases, distance of the courts to be designated and adequacy of infrastructure.

The top court had also said that while preparing the action plan the chief justices of the high courts should also consider whether it would be necessary and appropriate to transfer cases where trial is going in an expeditious manner.

“The chief justices of the high courts shall also designate a special bench, comprising themselves and their designate, in order to monitor the progress of these trials,” it had said.