Nisha Ghosal
The Supreme Court directed that the criminal cases pending against former and sitting Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assemblies should be heard without further unnecessary delay or adjournments.
Amicus Curiae, Advocate Vijay Hansaria, had urged the bench to look after witnesses protection, upgrade the infrastructure, look into the alternative of video conferencing and speedy disposal of the pending cases.
Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in pending criminal cases against MPs and MLAs – which the bench of Justices NV Ramana, Surya Kant, and Aniruddha Bose had considered.
The Court had issued some directives. The order read:
“…Keeping in mind the public interest involved in these matters, and in order to prevent undue delay, we direct that no unnecessary adjournments be granted in this matter…”
The directives apply to both former and sitting legislators.