New Delhi: The Centre Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it will set up a dozen special courts across the country for quick disposal of criminal cases against lawmakers. Aside from these fast track courts, the government has also decided to earmark a sum of Rs 7.8 crore for the purpose.
More than 13,500 criminal cases against 1,581 lawmakers were pending in different courts across the country till 2014. Taking serious note of this, the Supreme Court had directed the Centre to chalk-out a plan for setting up exclusive fast track courts to deal with such cases. The government was also asked to allocate sufficient funds to meet the expenses of these fast track courts.
The apex court’s directive comes in the wake of a petition filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, a lawyer and BJP member. The petitioner had also urged the Supreme Court to scrap the law that bars a convicted person from contesting elections for a maximum period of six years. The petitioner, instead, suggested that the existing law be replaced with a lifetime-ban for convicts.
During its last hearing November 1, the apex court had agreed with the petitioner’s suggestion. If the top court decides on a life-time ban, it could end the electoral career of politicians like former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Yadav, who has been convicted in a fodder scam case, and prevent V K Sasikala, who is currently in jail in a corruption case, from beginning a lawmaker.
Meanwhile, the Centre and the Election Commission seem to be at loggerheads over the issue. While the Centre is of the view that the current six-year ban is enough, the EC advocates a life-time ban. Earlier, the ambivalent stand of the EC on the issue had invited a sharp response from the apex court.
An irked bench of the top court had then remaked, “Can you afford to remain silent? Is silence an option?” “If you don’t want to be independent, but be constrained by the legislature, say so.” Defending the EC, senior advocate Meenakshi Arora and lawyer Mohit D Ram then told the court that the poll panel had already recommended to the Centre to amend the existing law and replace it with a life ban against convicted lawmakers.
November 1, the Supreme Court had also directed the Centre to submit an update on the status of 13,500 criminal cases against MPs and MLAs to the court. The court also wanted to know the precise number of cases that had been disposed of in the past year, in addition to the number of convictions and acquittals.
PNN
