NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Monday said it would focus on deciding the adequacy of six-year disqualification from contesting elections for politicians convicted for heinous offences after it delegates monitoring of trials of MPs/MLAs in criminal cases to high court chief justices.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Mishra told this to amicus curiae and senior advocate Vijay Hansaria as it felt it was not feasible for the apex court to monitor progress in trials of criminal cases against MPs and MLAs in special courts, which were set up on the orders of the SC during the seven-year hearing of a PIL filed by Ashwini Upadhyay.
On Hansaria’s plea for directions to expedite the trial in 5,097 cases pending against MPs and MLAs, of which 40% or 2,122 were more than five years old, the bench asked, “How long should the SC monitor progress in trials against sitting or former MPs & MLAs?
“It would be appropriate to entrust the task to the high courts concerned. The HC chief justice can ask for monthly status reports from district judges, who in turn can monitor the progress of trials pending before special courts.”
However, it agreed to separate the issue – whether six-year disqualification from contesting polls was adequate in cases where the conviction was recorded in heinous offences – from the issue under consideration, that is expediting the trial of elected representatives.
As per the Representation of the People Act, anyone convicted and sentenced to more than two years would be disqualified for six years from the date of completion of the sentence.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Mishra told this to amicus curiae and senior advocate Vijay Hansaria as it felt it was not feasible for the apex court to monitor progress in trials of criminal cases against MPs and MLAs in special courts, which were set up on the orders of the SC during the seven-year hearing of a PIL filed by Ashwini Upadhyay.
On Hansaria’s plea for directions to expedite the trial in 5,097 cases pending against MPs and MLAs, of which 40% or 2,122 were more than five years old, the bench asked, “How long should the SC monitor progress in trials against sitting or former MPs & MLAs?
“It would be appropriate to entrust the task to the high courts concerned. The HC chief justice can ask for monthly status reports from district judges, who in turn can monitor the progress of trials pending before special courts.”
However, it agreed to separate the issue – whether six-year disqualification from contesting polls was adequate in cases where the conviction was recorded in heinous offences – from the issue under consideration, that is expediting the trial of elected representatives.
As per the Representation of the People Act, anyone convicted and sentenced to more than two years would be disqualified for six years from the date of completion of the sentence.