The Madras High Court is all set to constitute a special bench to ensure early disposal of criminal cases pending against sitting as well as former MPs and MLAs in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry by issuing necessary directions to the special courts seized of such cases.
Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala on Wednesday said, he had already issued instructions in this regard to the High Court Registry and that the special bench would be in place soon in accordance with a directive issued by the Supreme Court on November 9, 2023.
Presiding over the first Division Bench along with Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, the Chief Justice adjourned the hearing on a connected suo motu writ petition, taken up by the court in 2020, to December 18 and said, the special bench would be in place by then.
During the hearing of the suo motu case, advocate S. Sheik Ismail, representing an impleading petitioner, referred to the Supreme Court’s recent order in which elaborate directions had been issued to all High Courts in the country for ensuring expeditious disposal of MP/MLA cases.
Taking serious note of 5,175 cases (including 2,116 cases that were more than five years old) pending against MPs and MLAs across the country, the apex court had said, there was a compelling need to dispose of those cases on priority since they have a direct bearing on political democracy.
“Confidence and trust of a constituency in its political representative, be it an MP or an MLA, is necessary for efficient and effective functioning of parliamentary democracy. However, such confidence is difficult to expect when figures, as indicated above, loom large in our polity,” the court had said.
A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud directed all High Courts in the country to constitute special benches for monitoring the progress of MP/MLA cases before the special courts and issuing necessary directions for expeditious disposal, the counsel said.
He pointed out that the apex court had also ordered that criminal offences punishable with death and life imprisonment must be given priority in disposal followed by those punishable with five years of imprisonment or more and that trial courts should not adjourn matters except for rare and compelling reasons.
The CJI’s bench had also made it clear that if the trial in any of the criminal cases against MPs or MLAs had been stayed by the High Court, those matters should be listed before the special bench for getting the stay vacated and ensuring conclusion of trial at the earliest.
