(MENAFN- NewsBytes)
12 special courts to hear 1,571 pending cases against politicians
12 Dec 2017
The Center has told the SC it has framed a policy to set up 12 special courts to quickly dispose of 1,571 pending cases against politicians.
These courts would be constituted for a year.
This comes on a petition by advocate Ashwini Upadhyaya, which seeks a bar on convicted politicians from contesting polls.
The EC had urged the apex court to take necessary steps.
31% of Modi's cabinet has criminal cases registered against them
Stats
According to the 2014 election affidavits, there are 1,581 cases pending against politicians.
In the Narendra Modi cabinet, 24 of the 78 union ministers (or 31%) have criminal cases registered against them, according to a 2016 report by the Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch.
Fourteen of them have declared serious criminal offences like murder, kidnapping and crimes against women (rape, molestation).
What do the current laws have to say?
Fact
Currently, lawmakers held guilty of a crime punishable by more than two years in jail immediately lose their membership of the Parliament or state Assembly. Moreover, a convicted criminal can't contest elections till six years after their sentence ends.
21 states will have none of these new special courts
Action
Now two special courts would be set up to hear 184 cases against MPs. Bihar (141 cases) and Maharashtra (160 cases) will have once court each for their MLAs.
There would be one each in UP (160), WB (107), Kerala (87) and Telangana (67).
21 states including Gujarat (54), Jharkhand (52) and Odisha (52) won't have any such special court.
But we don't have the latest data yet
Fact
The Finance Ministry has approved Rs. 7.8cr for the special courts. The EC said they would help greatly in "cleansing Indian politics". However, the Center couldn't provide data regarding cases lodged against legislators during 2014-2017, and the number of cases disposed of in a year.
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