Srinagar: In a case relating to presence of criminality in the highest houses of legislature, the J&K High Court has directed its Registrar Judicial to seek status of trial from the concerned courts against the law-makers.
The case cropped up on the directions of the Supreme Court of India passed in September 2020 in a writ petition. The petition treated as PIL sought monitoring the progress of the trial of cases pending against the sitting and former legislators including Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs).
In terms of an order passed last year, the J&K High Court had arrayed Central and State Home Secretaries as respondents from Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
The two centrally-administered territories were directed to submit information about the number of trials pending in different subordinate courts and the High Court against the MPs and MLAs.
Status report filed on behalf of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir revealed that cases of 13 MPs and MLAs are pending trial before various courts in the region.
The court noted the nonchalant approach of the Union Territory of Ladakh, which has chosen not to file the status report. It granted the Commissioner Secretary Home Department of the Union Territory of Ladakh two weeks to submit the details of the cases pending against its legislators.
Nearly 5,000 criminal cases against MPs and MLAs are pending in courts across India for more than five years. The data shows that a growing number of persons with criminal antecedents are occupying seats in its Parliament and the State assemblies, a report in the Supreme Court has said.
“Despite a series of directions by this court and continuous monitoring, as many as 4,984 cases are pending out of which 1,899 cases are more than five years old,” the report, filed by the Supreme Court’s amicus curiae Vijay Hansaria and advocate Sneha Kalita, revealed.
“The total number of cases pending as on December 2018 was 4,110 and 4,859 as on October 2020. Even after disposal of 2,775 cases after December 4, 2018, the cases against MPs and MLAs have increased from 4,122 to 4,984.
“This shows that more and more persons with criminal antecedents are occupying the seats in Parliament and the State Legislative Assemblies,” the report said.
The report urged the court that it was of “utmost necessity that urgent and stringent steps are taken for expeditious disposal of pending criminal cases”.
