Nishka Srinivas Veluvali
Published On: January 18, 2022 at 17:09 IST
On Monday, the Calcutta High Court took note of the Affidavit filed by the High Court Administration referring to the details of the pending Criminal Cases against the MPs and MLAs in different Courts in the State of West Bengal.
The Calcutta High Court was considering the suo-motu Petition filed with regard to the Orders issued by the Supreme Court directing the Chief Justice of High Courts to prepare an Action Plan to initialize the dispose the Criminal Cases unresolved against the Legislators.
The Supreme Court in its September 17, 2021 Order stated the necessary focus points for formulating the Action Plan. The points are as follows:
a. Total number of pending cases in each district
b. Required number of proportionate Special Courts
c. Number of Courts that are currently available
d. Number of Judges and the subject categories of the cases
e. Tenure of the Judges to be designated
f. Number of cases to be assigned to each Judge
g. Expected time for disposal of the cases
h. Distance of the Courts to be designated
i. Adequacy of infrastructure.
The Bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj were informed by the High Court Administration that approximately 244 Criminal Cases are still unresolved against MPs and MLAs in various Courts of West Bengal as of 31st December, 2021.
The Calcutta High Court took cognizance of the suggestion of appointing one Nodal Officer of the rank of Deputy Commissioner to be designated in every Special Court conducting trials of the Criminal Cases against the Legislators.
The appointed Nodal Officer must work concentratedly on the concerned purpose and must not be troubled with any other Administrative Obligation.
The High Court also noted the grievances put forth by many Trial Courts stating their sufferance due to inadequate infrastructure and lack of human resource.
After all the submissions, the High Court Ordered the Registrar General of the High Court Administration to file an Affidavit with regard to the infrastructure in the different Courts which are conducting the Trials of the Criminal Cases of MPs and MLAs.