New Delhi : In a big setback to politicians, the Supreme Court on Thursday approved the Centre’s proposal for setting up 12 special courts to hear cases against 1,581 MPs and MLAs who are facing serious criminal charges.
The apex court granted the Centre two months to collect data of pending cases against tainted lawmakers and directed that the special court should become operational by March 1, 2018.
Two special courts would handle cases against 228 MPs and the other 10 would be set up in 10 states — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, UP and Bengal—where the number of MLAs booked for criminal acts is more than 65, according to sources.
The apex court had on November 1 directed the Centre to place before it details regarding 1,581 cases involving MPs and MLAs, as declared by the politicians at the time of filing their nominations during the 2014 general elections.