Srinagar: The J&K & Ladakh administrations have been granted another four weeks to file the latest report about the number of criminal cases pending in different courts against Members of Parliament (MPs) and the Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs).
Chief Justice Tashi Rabstan and Justice M A Chowdhary while hearing a public interest litigation on the matter observed “needful in terms of order dated 09.09.2024, has not been done. Faheem Nissar Shah, GA, seeks additional time, which is granted. He shall file the latest status report within four weeks”.
TM Shamsi, Deputy Solicitor GeneraI submitted “I will adopt the status report already filed on 16.01.2023”. The matter has been listed on December 23, 2024.
On September 20, 2021 in view of directions of the Supreme Court passed in writ petition (Civil) No.699/2016 directing for monitoring the progress of the trial of cases pending against the sitting and former legislators (MPs or MLAs), on the directions of Chief Justice, the Registry had registered the PIL as “court on its own motion versus Union of India and others”.
In this suo moto motion, the Union of India was directed to be represented through the Home Secretary. Similarly the Union Territory of J&K & Ladakh were to be represented through their respective Commissioner Secretary, Home.
In its order, the Supreme Court had asked the Chief Justices of High Courts to head special benches and immediately hear long-pending criminal cases against the sitting and former legislators.
“There are about 175 cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act and 14 cases are pending under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 against the sitting and former legislators,” the order said.
In a significant order, a three-judge bench of the SC asked the chief justices to take up these cases which had been on the backburner indefinitely just because the courts had granted an interim stay of trial at some point of time in the distant past.
The chief justices were asked to list such cases immediately before their own respective special benches and review if the stay on the criminal trial needed to continue at all.
According to a document uploaded on the J&K High Court website, 11 criminal cases were pending in J&K courts against the lawmakers in March 2024 while two criminal cases were pending against lawmakers of Leh.
The Supreme Court has opined that special consideration for fast-track of cases against lawmakers was required not only because of the rising wave of criminalization that was occurring in the politics in the country, but also due to the power that elected representatives can influence or hamper effective prosecution.
Additionally, as legislators are the repositories of the faith and trust of their electorate, there is a necessity to be aware of the antecedents of the person that is or was elected.
