12 courts set up to try pending criminal cases against legislators, Centre tells SC

New Delhi, Oct 16: The Centre has told the Supreme Court that 12 courts have been set up to try MPs and MLAs who have pending criminal cases against them. 12 such courts have been set up in 11 states, the SC was also informed.

The court had warned the States and Union Territories that the Chief Secretaries and Registrar Generals would be made responsible if details of the pending criminal cases against sitting lawmakers were not provided.

On October 10, a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi had given 11 States/Union Territories and the High Courts of Karnataka, Kerala and Tripura a deadline of four weeks to comply with its order dated September 12.

The court had sought data to determine the number of special courts that had been set up across the country to exclusively try legislators with pending criminal cases.

The court asked senior advocate, Vijay Hansaria and his associates to examine the status reports and affidavits filed by the States/UTs so far. The court while taking a serious note of the issue had said that it would monitor the compliance of its orders to form the special courts.