Nishka Srinivas Veluvali –
Published On: November 17, 2021 at 22:30 IST
Karnataka High Court ordered the Registrar General to seek the information related to the number of cases withdrawn against Legislators, Pending or discarded post 16 September, 2020.
The Bench consisting of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum stated,
“It is informed that the matter before Apex court is coming up for hearing on November 24. List the matter on January 17, 2022. In the meantime, the registrar General of this Court shall seek information regarding the number of cases pertaining to MP, MLA and MLC, in the special session court as well as special magistrate courts, with regard to the withdrawal of cases by the state government, pending or disposed after 16/09/2020.”
The Order passed out while the hearing of a Suo Motu Petition commenced by the Court with respect to the directions given out by the Supreme Court seeking the Chief Justices of the High Court to come up with an action plan to justify the disposal of Criminal cases pending opposing the Legislators.
Senior Advocate Aditya Sondhi, Amicus Curiae disclosed to the Court the order passed by the Apex Court on August 10, in which it directed the High Courts to scrutinize the rationality of the withdrawals of Prosecution against the Legislators, issued after September 16, 2020.
Sondhi further informed the Court that the State governments had only provided the details of only four cases and asked to permit the registry to gather the details from the Special Courts.
On September 17, the Supreme Court passed an Order that stated the action plan should focus the following aspects:
“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 Chief Justice of the High Courts were ordered to depute a Special Bench, including themselves and their deputes, with a view to keep the track of the progress of these trials.
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