165 Telangana, Andhra Pradesh politicos face trial in special courts

Hyderabad: Politicians in the two Telugu states who are accused in criminal cases will be tried in special courts, one each in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state, following directions of the top court of the country.

The Supreme Court has given the green signal for the Centre’s scheme to set up 12 fast track courts to exclusively prosecute and dispose of criminal cases pending against Members of Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies within a year.

The Centre has estimated that about 1,000 courts would have to be set up to deal with pending cases against politicians across the country.

The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that as per the declarations by the political leaders before the Election Commission in the 2014 general election, there were 1,581 criminal cases pending against lawmakers.

The Supreme Court also referred to a report which was submitted to it by the Association of Democratic Rights, an NGO associated with electoral reforms, which disclosed names of 1,581 MPs/MLAs facing 13,500 criminal cases in Parliament and State Assemblies.

The Hyderabad High Court has commenced the process to segregate the cases pending against politicians which will be referred to the special court. 

Of Telangana state’s 119 MLAs, 64 face criminal cases. Forty of them belong to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, nine to the Telugu Desam, six to the Congress, three to the MIM, two to the BJP and three to other parties.

In Andhra Pradesh, of the 175 elected MLAs, 82 are facing criminal cases. While the TD tops the list with 52 MLAs, the YSR Congress is second with 29.

As far as the elected MPs are concerned, in Telangana state, eight out of 17 elected MPs are facing criminal cases and in AP 11 out of 25 MPs.

The Supreme Court wanted the special courts to function from March 1, 2018, but it will be delayed by a couple of months, sources in the law department revealed.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Navin Sinha while permitting the Centre to set up the special courts said the cases of several politicians can be clubbed together and one court can hear them. The bench expected a special court to finish at least 100 cases a year.