High Court Seeks Details Of All Pending Cases Against MPs/MLAs in States Of Punjab, Haryana & U.T. Chandigarh

The Bench of Justice Rajan Gupta and Justice Karamjit Singh has directed an Officer of the rank of Inspector General of Police to be present on the next date of hearing to furnish the requisite information.

Significantly, a similar direction was also issued to District Judges of Punjab, Haryana & U.T. Chandigarh to furnish details of such cases and to ensure their speedy disposal thereof.

They have been directed to also send a report to the High Court regarding the stage of such trials.

It may be noted that in compliance of the order of the Supreme Court dated 16.09.2020 passed in W.P. (Civil) No.600/2016 (Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay & others vs. Union of India & others), the Punjab & Haryana High Court has registered a suo motu petition for monitoring the progress of the trials of the pending criminal cases against sitting/former Legislators (MPs & MLAs).

At the outset, the amicus curiae apprised the court that as per the information supplied to him by the registry, only two cases are pending before the Single Judge of the High Court.

He further submitted that he could get fresh instructions from the registry to ensure that no case pertaining to MPs/MLAs has been left out of the list.

Further, the Court also sought details from the Union of India, Central Bureau of Investigation, E.D. and other Central Investigating Agencies as the operative part of the order (in Ashwani Kumar case) specifically mentions that trial of all the criminal cases instituted by the State(s) have to be monitored.

Lastly, the Registry was directed to examine the possibility of listing the matter on a date so that the matter could be heard in physical mode.

Related news

This month, the Madras High Court has ordered that Special Benches, which are established in Courts to expeditiously hear criminal cases pertaining to MPs/ MLAs, will only hear cases "filed against" them.

The Court has made it clear that such Special Benches will not hear cases that are "filed by" these MPs/ MLAs.

A division bench of Madras High Court comprising of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy in January 2021 observed that a comprehensive road map must be made considering the "litigative resourcefulness" of the legislators against whom cases are pending in the trial courts and High Court to ensure that the cases are disposed of at the earliest.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court (Jabalpur Bench) registered a suo motu petition on 21.09.2020 for monitoring the progress of the trials of the pending criminal cases against sitting/former Legislators (MPs & MLAs).

Last year, the Division Bench of the Orissa High Court comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice B. R. Sarangi directed the Advocate General AK Parija to obtain instructions and file details of the criminal cases pending before different the courts of all the districts of Odisha against sitting/former M.Ps and M.L.A.s.

Also, the Karnataka High Court too directed the Registrar General of the Court to register a suo-motu petition, in view of the directions issued by the Supreme Court.

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