SC directs govt to establish additional CBI Courts to complete pending investigations against MPs & MLAs

Read Judgment: Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay vs. Union of India & Anr 

LE Correspondent

New Delhi, August 27, 2021: The Supreme Court has directed the Central Government as well as State Governments to provide necessary infrastructural facilities to the High Courts for the purposes of establishment of additional CBI/Special Courts, to expedite proceedings in cases filed against MPs and MLAs.

A three Judge Bench of Chief Justice N.V Ramana, Justice D.Y Chandrachud and Justice Suryakant observed that Special/CBI Courts need to be set up in different parts of the State where more than 100 cases are pending to ensure easy accessibility to the witnesses and decongestion of existing Special/CBI Courts.

The bench said there is an urgent need of rationalizing the establishment of Special/CBI Courts, as it may not be humanly possible for one/two Courts in a State to expedite all the trials or take up the same on a day-to-day basis in terms of Section 309 Cr.P.C.

The observation came to be passed pursuant to a status report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in compliance with previous order of the Apex Court dated Aug 10, 2021, which revealed that there are 121 cases pending trial before different CBI Courts involving sitting MPs and Ex-MPs and 112 cases involving sitting MLAs and Ex-MLAs. 

The Top Court found from the CBI report that 37 cases are still at the investigation stage, the oldest being registered on Oct 24, 2013. 

The details of cases pending trial unveil that there are several cases in which the charge sheet was filed as far back as the year 2000, but are still pending either for appearance of accused, framing of charges or prosecution evidence, added the Top Court. 

However, on the assurance given by the Solicitor General that he will take up the matter with the Director, CBI, for providing adequate manpower and infrastructure to the said agency so that pending investigations can be completed at the earliest, the Apex Court opined to defer the cases relating to the year 2010 for offence(s) punishable with life imprisonment in which the chargesheet was filed way back in the year 2011 and charges were framed in 2012, observing that it may not be feasible to direct that such cases be taken up on a day-to-day basis for want of necessary manpower and infrastructure. 

Although, from the details of the cases pending against MPs/MLAs with the NIA, the Apex Court found that no effective steps have been taken even in the matters where charges were framed in the year 2018 and the cases are stated to be under trial or further investigation. 

Accordingly, the Top Court directed the Solicitor General to file a response to the submissions of the Amicus Curie with respect to cases investigated by the ED and CBI on the 14th Status Report, particularly with respect to the constitution of a Monitoring Committee by the Apex Court to evaluate the reasons for delay in investigations. 

The Apex Court however made it clear that the order dated Sep 16, 2020 passed by the SC pertains to expeditious disposal of trials and it has no bearing on criminal appeals pending before High Courts against conviction of MPs/ExMPs or MLAs/ExMLAs, which shall be taken up as per their turn and need not be given an out of turn hearing on a misunderstanding of order dated Sep 16.