Expeditious disposal of cases against MPs, MLAs: Karnataka High Court seeks details of public prosecutors appointed

The Karnataka High Court on Monday asked the state government to place on record details of the public prosecutors appointed for cases against Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly (MPs and MLAs) pending before Special Courts. .A Division Bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Vishwajith Shetty opined that since the matters are sensitive in nature, the State will have place on record the procedure it has adopted for selecting public prosecutors appearing in these cases..The Court had recently directed the registration of a suo motu petition, in view of the directions issued by the Supreme Court urging Chief Justices of High Courts to formulate an action plan to expeditiously deal with pending cases against legislators..Today, the Court heard the submissions of Amicus Curiae and Senior Advocate Aditya Sondhi and Additional Advocate General Dhyan Chinnappa on whether the Special Court established through the state government notification had jurisdiction to consider criminal cases where MPs and MLAs itself are the complainants/first informants..In this regard, it was brought to the attention of the Court that a Single Judge who is hearing pending criminal cases against MLAs/MPs had decided the issue on October 15. The Single Judge had held that criminal cases initiated on the basis on complaints filed by the legislators will have to be transferred to the Special Court, the Division Bench was informed..In view of this order, the Division Bench stated that it would not be appropriate to delve into the said issue as it is a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) Court. During the course of the hearing, Sondhi further shed light on the fact that another Single Judge Bench of the Court was dealing with another pertinent issue: whether the Special Court has the jurisdiction to try cases against MLAs/MPs from other states. This issue is pending adjudication..On hearing the submissions, the Court deemed it fit to direct Sondhi to inform the Amicus Curiae in the Supreme Court matter (Senior Advocate Vijay Hansaria) on the said issues so that the Apex Court may look into them. The state government was also asked to take an immediate decision to set up one more Special Court to try cases against legislators..Expeditious disposal of cases against MPs, MLAs: Karnataka HC asks State on availability of public prosecutors in Special Court.Before the Bench called it a day, it highlighted the two issues that were to be considered - the implementation of the Witness Protection Scheme, 2018, and the expeditious disposal of cases against MLAs/MPs before the Special Court. .The matter will be next taken up on December 1.