Fresh plea in SC on status of cases against legislators

A plea was today filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Election Commission of India that it should seek information from all sitting lawmakers about the status of criminal cases pending against them.
The interlocutory application, filed in a pending PIL, also sought to declare as "null and void", the elections of those MLAs, MLCs and MPs who fail to furnish these details within 90 days.
The fresh plea, filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, said the onus of producing information should be placed on the lawmakers themselves as neither was the national grid functioning properly, nor were news reports enough for this purpose.

The apex court was yesterday informed by the Centre that at least 12 special courts would be set up to decide cases involving politicians as accused which had sought more time to collect and collate data of pending cases against lawmakers across the country.
The fresh plea also claimed that the number of Special Courts to be established by the Centre was highly inadequate to deal with the huge number of criminal cases pending against politicians.
"It is submitted that the Central Government may be required to establish quite not less than 140 Special Courts to dispose of all criminal cases involving political persons," the plea said.

The apex court had on November 1 directed the Centre to place before it details regarding 1,581 cases involving MPs and MLAs, as declared by the politicians at the time of filing their nominations during the 2014 general elections.

It had asked the government to apprise it of how many among these 1,581 cases have been disposed of within a year and how many have ended either in conviction or acquittal.
The government's affidavit has said that the figure of 1,581 cases has been obtained from an NGO but the data as to in which courts these cases are pending is not available.

It had informed the bench that the recommendations of the Election Commission and the Law Commission favouring life-time disqualification of politicians convicted in criminal cases was under the active consideration of the government.
The EC had supported the plea seeking life ban on politicians convicted in criminal cases and said they have already made recommendations on this to the Centre.
The top court was hearing petitions seeking to declare the provisions of the Representation of People Act, which bar convicted politician from contesting elections for six years after serving jail term, as ultra vires of the Constitution.
The apex court had on July 12 pulled up the EC for not taking a clear stand on a plea seeking barring of convicted politicians for life.

The Centre, in its affidavit, had said the prayer sought by the petitioner seeking life-time bar on convicted lawmakers was not maintainable and the plea should be dismissed.
The petition had also sought a direction to the Centre and the EC to fix minimum educational qualification and a maximum age limit for persons contesting polls.