Over 500 Criminal Cases Pending Against MP/MLAs In Maharashtra, Goa; Maximum Cases In Amravati District, Zero In Naxal Belt Of Gadchiroli

Out of nearly 500 cases pending in various trial courts in Maharashtra, Amravati and Parbhani have 45 and 40 cases pending respectively while Gadchiroli has none and Latur has only one case.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik in a suo moto criminal writ were seeking compliance of Supreme Court's orders to set up Special Courts in every district for trial of all criminal cases against MPs/ MLAs.

The Supreme Court had also asked Chief Justices of each High Court to formulate a blue print for expeditious disposal of such cases.

On Friday, Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni submitted that there was partial compliance of the Supreme Court's order. He submitted an entire list of cases pending and also said that special courts were already set up in every district.

As the first step the CJ asked for a list of trial proceedings stayed by the High Court to examine if such stay orders could be vacated. The Registry is directed to furnish the information by Monday.

According to the data submitted, 51 criminal cases are pending against former and sitting legislators in the Bombay High Court. Out of them, 19 are at the principal seat, nine before the Nagpur bench, 21 cases before the Aurangabad bench and two in Goa.

While 201 trials against legislators are pending within the jurisdiction of Bombay High Court, 126 are pending in Nagpur, 157 in Aurangabad and 20 in Goa.

The tally of highest and lowest cases pending in the trial courts is as follow - Amravati - 45, Parbhani - 40, Latur - 1, Gadchiroli - 0.

Some of the prominent names with pending criminal cases against them are –

MLA Nitesh Rane (BJP), MLA from Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar - Abu Azmi (Samajwadi Party), former revenue minister and MLA – Eknath Khadse (Earlier BJP now NCP), MLA from Solapur South Subhash Deshmukh (BJP), former MLA Pankaj Bhujbal (NCP), Prafula Patel (Congress), Maharashtra's former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh (NCP), independent MLA from Achalpur in Amravati Bacchu Kadu (2), Sanjay Dhotre (BJP), State cabinet Minister Sunil Kedar (Congress), former State housing minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil (2) (BJP), MLA from Dhule Anil Gote (BJP)- spent four years in prison on allegations of counterfeiting but has never been convicted, former MLA Harshvardhan Jadhav (MNS).