Nishka Srinivas Veluvali –
Published on: November 24, 2021 at 21:45 IST
The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, asserted that Allahabad High Court “misinterpreted” the Apex Court’s direction by assigning only Sessions Court for the Cases against MPs/MLAs.
The Supreme Court Bench includes Chief Justice NV Ramana, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Surya Kant, who heard the Plea filed by SP leader Azam Khan challenging the order passed by the Allahabad High Court on August 16 2019, under which cases were trialled with the Magistrate and transferred to Special Court led by an officer of the position of Additional Sessions Judge.
In response to the query raised by the Court, the counsel representing Allahabad High Court put forth that approximately 13,000 cases are pending against the sitting former MPs and MLAs and 63 Special Court are designated to try them.
The Counsel claimed, “Special Courts are created at the Sessions level and not at the Magistrate level and it was done following the Apex Court’s order.”
“Don’t misinterpret our orders. We know what our orders are. We allowed creation of Magisterial Courts also as required,” the Chief Justice of India told the High Court’s Counsel.
The Bench told the counsel to go through the order passed by the Supreme Court on 16 September 2020, in the Ashwin Upadhyay case.
“There is nothing in the order to indicate that this Court wanted to transfer the Cases triable by the Magistrates to Sessions Court by exercising powers under Article 142. On the other hand, there are contrary indications that this Court wanted the creation of Special Magistrate Courts.”,Justice Chandrachud pointed out.
Chief Justice N V Ramana enquires about the Magistrate level Courts created by other states.
The Amicus Curiae, Senior Advocate Vijay Hansaria mentioned that Bench in the states like Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and West Bengal, there is one Magistrate Court assigned as the Special Court to try the cases against MPs/MLAs.
The Bench directed that “It will pass orders to the High Courts and States to create Special Magistrate Courts and to transfer the Cases (triable by the Magistrate) from the Sessions Court to Magistrate Courts from the stage where the Trial is over.”
The Supreme Court set forth the Orders for the constitution of Special Courts to try the cases against legislations in a Public Interest Litigation filed in case of Ashwin Kumar Upadhyay in 2016, directing life ban on the convicted politicians from participating in the elections.
Also Read: Karnataka High Court: Withdrawal of cases against MLAs, MPs not Valid
Supreme Court to examine validity of Special Magistrate Court for MPs & MLAs