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Afzal Ansari, Abdullah Azam and Vikram Saini… these are the names whose membership was lost due to the fast track court of MP-MLA. The Fast Track Court of MP-MLA has also been in limelight in the cases of Azam Khan and Rahul Gandhi.
This fast track court, which is in the limelight, has been quite lax in disposing of the case. In 5 years, only 6 percent cases have been settled in this court. In 2017, 10 fast track courts were set up across the country to quickly dispose of criminal cases against MPs and MLAs.
Interestingly, the maximum number of cases are pending in the fast track court of Uttar Pradesh, which hears the most honorable people. In Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, not a single case has been settled in the last 5 years. In one case in Tamil Nadu, a fast track court has sentenced.
In this story, we know in detail about the fast track court of MP-MLA, its slow pace and the big leaders under it…
Why was the fast track court formed?
In 2017, while hearing the petition of Ashwini Upadhyay, the Supreme Court had advised to set up a fast track court. Upadhyay said that cases are registered against tainted leaders and they continue to contest elections. In such a situation, there is no importance of the Representation of the People Act.
After the advice of the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Law had formed 10 fast track courts in 9 states. The court reprimanded the government and said that the case of the leaders should also be heard in the fast track court. The monitoring of fast track court cases is done by the Supreme Court itself.
According to the report of ADR, at present there are 1783 MLAs across the country who have criminal cases against them. Of these 1125 have serious criminal cases. This is 44 percent of the total number of MLAs.
If we talk about Parliament, out of 543 Lok Sabha MPs, 233 have criminal cases registered against them. Serious cases are registered against 159 MPs. Similarly, out of 233 Rajya Sabha MPs, 71 have criminal cases. No party is immune from tainted leaders.
Fast track court backward in disposal of cases
According to a report of the Department of Justice, there are currently 2729 cases pending in fast track courts against politicians. In the last 5 years, only 168 cases have been settled. That is, on an average, about 3 cases have been settled every month.
Uttar Pradesh has the highest case peddling of 1255, while Maharashtra is second. Here 447 cases are still pending. Two fast track courts have been set up for politicians in the capital Delhi, but only 11 cases have been disposed of in the last five years.
Elections are also to be held in Madhya Pradesh and Telangana at the end of this year, but in the last 5 years there has not been a decision against the leaders in even a single case. Case peddling is 307 in Madhya Pradesh and 353 in Telangana.
According to the ADR report, 73 (61 percent) of the 119 MLAs elected to the Telangana Assembly in 2019 have criminal cases against them. Out of these 47 cases have been registered under serious criminal sections.
If compared state-wise, the maximum number of cases (10 per cent) have been settled in Karnataka. There are 211 cases pending in the state, while 22 cases have been disposed of in the fast trial court. And in West Bengal, 3 cases have been settled, while 15 are pending.
Why the speed is slow, 3 reasons…
Supreme Court had constituted Nyaya Mitra to review the slow progress of the cases against the honorable. The amicus curiae had submitted a report to the Supreme Court in May this year and had given some suggestions to increase the speed. The reason for this was also mentioned in the report.
1. Shortage of judges – It was said in the report that the biggest obstacle in disposing of cases at the earliest is the shortage of judges. Justice Mitra suggested to the Supreme Court that the judges of MP-MLA courts should be reviewed from all the High Courts. After this, the appointment process of judges in these courts should be completed immediately.
2. Lack of basic infrastructure- The fast track court is facing issues related to lack of connectivity, laptops, back-up arrangements in case of power failure, security facilities etc. The Calcutta High Court said in the affidavit filed that due to these reasons there is difficulty in hearing, so the decision does not come on time.
3. Transfer of judges-< / strong> In his report, Justice Mitra also told the transfer of judges as the main reason for the slow pace of fast track courts. The amicus curiae said that judges are transferred midway, which affects the case. That’s why it should be banned.
The membership of these leaders ended due to the fast track court
The decision of the fast track court on many big leaders has been in the headlines. Recently, the MP-MLA court has given its verdict on Bahubali Mukhtar Ansari and his brother MP Afzal Ansari in the gangster case. Court sentenced Afzal to 4 years.
(*Supreme Court reinstated Faizal’s membership after Kerala High Court stayed the order)
Mohammad Faizal is the NCP MP from Lakshadweep and in a case against him, the MP-MLA court sentenced him to 10 years, after which his membership was cancelled. Faizal challenged this in the High Court and later the Supreme Court ruled to restore the membership.
In the meantime, the Supreme Court instructed all the MP-MLA courts that the decision should be given in such cases only after careful study. In fact, the membership of MPs and MLAs who have been sentenced to 2 years or more under the Representation of the People Act is cancelled.
Under Article 102(1) of the Constitution of India and the Representation of the People Act, 1951, politicians who have been sentenced to two years or more cannot contest elections for six years after completing their sentence.
Cases of these big leaders in MP-MLA court
More than 2700 cases are pending in MP-ML fast track court. The cases of many big leaders are also included in these. A defamation case is going on against Rahul Gandhi in the MP-MLA courts of Bihar and Jharkhand. Azam Khan has recently got relief from the MP-MLA court.
A case has been filed against Trinamool leader Abhishek Banerjee in the MP-MLA court of Madhya Pradesh. This case was done by BJP MLA Akash Vijayvargiya. A case related to assault and assault is also going on in the MP-MLA court against BJP National Secretary Harish Dwivedi.
Money laundering case against Karnataka’s new Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar is filed in Delhi’s MP-MLA court. Hearing against MLA Abbas Ansari from Mau in Uttar Pradesh is also going on in MP-MLA fast track court.
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