Karnataka High Court Seeks Information Regarding Withdrawal Of Cases Against MPs/MLAs

A division bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum said,

"It is informed that the matter before the Apex court is coming up for hearing on November 24. List the matter on January 17, 2022. In the meantime the Registrar General of this court shall seek information regarding the number of cases pertaining to MP, MLA and MLC, in the special session court as well as special magistrate courts, with regard to the withdrawal of cases by the state government, pending or disposed after 16/09/2020."

The direction was given during the hearing of a suo-motu petition initiated by the court in view of the directions issued by the Supreme Court asking the Chief Justices of the High Courts to formulate an action plan to rationalize the disposal of criminal cases pending against legislators.

Amicus Curiae Senior Advocate Aditya Sondhi brought to the notice of the court the direction issued by the Supreme Court dated August 10, wherein it directed the high courts to examine the validity of withdrawals of prosecution against the legislators, passed after September 16, 2020.

Sondhi informed the court that the state government had provided details of only four cases and sought a direction to the Registry to collect the information from the special courts.

He said, "The Registry of this court may obtain the details from the special courts of all such cases pending or disposed of after September 16, 2020. The other direction regarding jurisdiction of special courts is seized off by the Supreme court, the matter is posted for hearing on the same issue on November 24. Thus, that aspect we will have to await."

The Apex court in its order passed on September 17, had said the action plan should touch upon the following aspects : a. Total number of pending cases in each district b. Required number of proportionate Special Courts c. Number of Courts that are currently available d. Number of Judges and the subject categories of the cases e. Tenure of the Judges to be designated f. Number of cases to be assigned to each Judge g. Expected time for disposal of the cases h. Distance of the Courts to be designated i. Adequacy of infrastructure.

The Chief Justice of the high courts were directed to designate a Special Bench, comprising themselves and their designate, in order to monitor the progress of these trials.

Case Title: High Court Of Karnataka v. State Of Karnataka

Case No: WP 10240/2020