Make law for fast-track trials against lawmakers: Supreme Court to government

Source – indianexpress.com

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the government to consider enacting a law to set up fast-track courts to expedite criminal cases against lawmakers. “With regard to MPs and MLAs, it falls under the domain of Parliament. It has the necessary competence to come up with a law. Make law and create necessary infrastructure,” the bench of Justices J Chelameswar and S Abdul Nazeer said.

The court’s observation came while reserving its order on a PIL filed by an NGO, which has demanded that candidates contesting elections disclose their sources of income. On Monday, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had informed the court in the case that a “preliminary verification” of election affidavits of seven Lok Sabha MPs and 98 MLAs had “indicated discrepancies” in income disclosed by them.

On Tuesday, Attorney General K K Venugopal handed over names of these 105 lawmakers and details of the status of the probe against them to the bench in a sealed cover. CBI may register disproportionate assets case against them, he told the bench.

The investigating agencies are making efforts to take up cases where discrepancies were noticed, Venugopal said.
The bench wondered how elected representatives indulge in business after getting elected and pointed out that there was a need for some mechanism under the Representation of People Act, 1951, to deal with such cases. The NGO, Lok Prahari, had referred to the disproportionate rise in assets of some legislators and demanded inclusion of a column in the nomination form where a candidate will be required to disclose his/her sources of income.