Supreme Court bats for special courts to try disproportionate assets cases

The Supreme Court today reserved its judgement in a petition filed by NGO Lok Prahari, which seeks a permanent mechanism to probe legislators with disproportionate assets..The petition was heard by a Bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Abdul Nazeer..During the course of arguments, the Bench mooted for the establishment of fast track Courts for prosecution of legislators with disproportionate assets..Apart from mooting setting up special courts for speedy disposal of these cases, Justice Chelameswar also observed that with the creation of new laws, there hasn’t been any new tribunals..The Bench further observed that instead of giving directives to the State, the Centre can just legislate and set up special courts, which could hear such cases on a fast track basis..The Bench was of the opinion that not only should the income of the legislators be disclosed, but the sources of income should also be scrutinized..Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, submitted before the Bench that setting up Fast Track Courts would require a lot of funds and is a question of “priority”..Venugopal suggested that the Court pass a judgement urging Parliament to mull over a legislation, as doing so might carry an extra bit of force..He also argued that the Central Bureau of Direct Taxes is looking at all the cases very seriously. The CBDT had submitted a detailed report before the Court in a sealed envelope containing details of the current investigations relating to disproportionate properties of MPs and MLAs.