HC issues a series of directions to speed up cases against legislators

‘Report progress to Registrar General’

The Madras High Court on Tuesday took up a suo motu writ petition to ensure speedy disposal of cases pending against Members of the Parliament and Legislative Assembly both before it and the special courts constituted for the purpose.

Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy directed the special courts to give top priority to disposal of the cases against the legislators and report progress to the Registrar General of the High Court.

The first Division Bench also directed the special courts to comply with all directions issued by the Supreme Court on the issue from time to time.

Monitor progress

It further decided to monitor the progress and directed the Registry to list the

suo motu petition again on January 5, 2021.

The Bench pointed out that as many as 107 cases related to MPs and MLAs were pending in the High Court as on September 16.

Nine petitions

Pursuant to that nine petitions had got disposed of. They directed the Registry to list the other cases on priority.

Since 56 cases related to the charge of criminal defamation were also pending in the High Court against many legislators, the Bench directed the Registry to list at least 10 of those cases on every working day before the judge holding the relevant portfolio.