HC seeks details of pending criminal cases against sitting & former MPs, MLAs
Cuttack: The Orissa high court has issued a notice to the government seeking details of the criminal cases pending before courts across the state against both sitting and former MPs and MLAs.
The HC issued the notice on Wednesday on a suo motu petition registered by the registrar (judicial) regarding special courts for MPs and MLAs in the state in pursuant to orders issued by the Supreme Court related to fast-track of the long- pending trial of lawmakers on September 16 and 17.
Advocate General Ashok Kumar Parija accepted the notice on behalf of the state government.
The HC expected the Advocate General to obtain instructions and file details of the criminal cases pending before different courts of all the districts of Odisha against sitting/former MPs and MLAs.
The bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice BR Sarangi said, “The Registrar General of the high court shall also file an affidavit with regard to infrastructure, such as staff, building etc., provided for expeditious disposal of the criminal cases and ensure early completion of trial of such matters.”
“He shall also mention the particulars of cases in which proceedings have been stayed by the superior court, this court or the court of sessions,” the bench further specified in its September 23 order, a copy of which was available on Friday.
The HC posted the matter to October 19 for hearing along with the response from the state government..
On September 16, the Supreme Court had resolved to complete the criminal trials pending against sitting and former MPS and MLAs, which run to over 4000 across the country, in a time-bound manner.
In an order published on September 17, the Supreme Court had asked the Chief Justices of high courts to come up with special benches for hearing long-pending criminal cases against politicians.
According to the order, the Chief Justices of high courts were expected to come up with an action plan on the infrastructure and number of special courts required for exclusive trial of criminal politicians.
The Supreme Court also expected the Chief Justices of high courts to submit their action plan based on the number of cases pending against MPs/MLAs in their respective states, the number of judges and their tenure, the number of cases assigned to them and the expected time of disposal.