The Centre has conveyed to the Supreme Court that in complying with the court directives it has taken a decision to set up Special Courts to hear and decide cases against Members of Parliament and Legislators in the states.
Upto the calculations of 2014 there are 1581 MPs and MLAs, facing criminal cases and approximately 13,500 such cases are pending before the various courts in the country. Out of 12 the 2 courts will decide the cases related to Members of Parliament and 10 courts will be set up in Andhra, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal to hold trial in cases related to MLAs.
It is general impression in the country that cases against political leaders will linger on for year without coming to conclusion. The “Chara” case against Lalu Yadav is going in for decades. At Centre the BJP Government of Prime Minister Mr.Narendra Modi deciding for speedy trial of criminal politicians while in Madhya Pradesh a BJP Minister Lal Singh Arya defying the Court summons and now avoiding his arrest against the court warrants.
It is the constitutional and moral responsibility of the Chief Minister Mr.Shivraj Singh Chouhan to have ensured Minister Arya appearing before the Bhind court on summons itself. But now when arrest warrant has been issued against him he should been arrested immediately and sacked from the Ministry. Now a sort of drama is going in police tracing him and he is not available in his official residence and office. It is ugly show of Chouhan Government.
In Bihar the hardcore criminals are elected Members and Sentenced by the court. But the State Government offered them all the facilities to live in luxury in jail also. After hue and cry such criminal was shifted from Bihar Jail to Tihar Jail of Delhi. It is feared that even if in speedy trial by the Special Court if such persons are convicted the State Government will treat them as VIP in jail also. The Special Courts are required to decide 1125 cases in a year.
The Government has made provision of about 8 crores of rupees initially to set up the courts. But there should be special set up also to complete the investigations in the cases against the corrupt politicians. Earlier before going to court trial there were lingering out on investigations for years.
This time should also be curtailed with speedy investigation. Most of the politicians say that they are wrongly framed up in political vendetta against them. The special court are in favour of such persons if they are wrongly framed up in false allegations. The Government and courts must also ensure that after convictions and on going to jail such persons should be treated like other persons and not as VIP.
