Delhi Election Commission is likely to approach the Union Law Ministry for setting up of special courts to dispose of a huge backlog of FIRs and other complaints of model code violation against political parties during past elections.
“At present we are in the stage of compiling all cases registered during past Assembly and Lok Sabha elections and forming a database. If the workload of cases is found to be too much and cannot be handled through normal courts, in that eventuality, we will approach the Law Ministry,” Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev said.
“We will request the ministry to designate special courts in districts to dispose them off on priority basis,” he said.
Among the pending cases, Mr. Dev said first priority will be given to those registered during last Delhi Assembly polls.
According to the Delhi EC, over 375 FIRs were registered against various political parties during the December 2013 Assembly elections with maximum number of cases against Aam Aadmi Party (above 100), followed by BJP (above 80) and Congress (above 75).
Mr. Dev said the commission will take up the matter with the Law Ministry after the polling for Lok Sabha elections in Delhi gets over on April 10.
“We are regularly holding meetings with police in this regard. We will take up the matter after the polling gets over in Delhi,” he said.
Explaining the procedure followed, Mr. Dev said after compilation of database and filing of charge sheets, the files go to public prosecutors.
“There is high pendency at this level as prosecutors evaluate the cases and confirm whether they will stand the scrutiny of the court or not. We will get a clearer picture on the amount of workload only after that,” Mr. Dev said.
He further said the commission will also take up the non-cognisable cases registered against parties under IPC, Model Code of Conduct, Representation of the People Act, for which the police do not file the charge sheet but the electoral authority has to become the complainant in the courts.
“Those are also lying. We will take them up in April as well and designate the authorities who will file the case in the court and prosecution against the accused will be done in the courts,” Mr. Dev said.
