4,984 criminal cases pending against former, sitting legislators before various courts, amicus curiae informs Supreme Court

New Delhi [India], February 3 : The Supreme Court has been told that a total of 4,984 criminal cases against former and sitting Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) are pending before various sessions and magistrate courts across the country, an increase of 862 such cases in the last three years.
"Despite a series of directions by this court and continuous monitoring, as many as 4,984 cases are pending out of which 1,899 cases are more than five years old. It may be noted that the total number of cases pending as on December 2018 were 4,110 and as on October 2020 were 4,859. Even after disposal of 2,775 cases after December 4, 2018, the cases against MPs/MLAs have increased from 4,122 to 4,984," stated the report submitted by amicus curiae and senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, assisting the court in the case.
The report was furnished in a petition filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay in a 2016 case seeking the establishment of special courts to try criminal cases against law makers and to debar convicted persons from the legislature and the executive.
The report said out of the 4,984 cases, 3,322 are magisterial cases while 1,651 are sessions cases. It said 1,899 of such pending cases are more than five years old while 1,475 such cases have been pending for a period between two and five years.
It said more and more persons with criminal antecedents are occupying seats in Parliament and the state assemblies and it is of utmost necessity that urgent and stringent steps are taken for expeditious disposal of pending criminal cases.