Ministry of Justice invites proposals to ‘generally evaluate’ MP-MLA courts
Currently, there are ten such courts operating in nine states. | Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The Union Law Ministry has invited proposals from apex institutions, including IIMs, IITs, law universities and law academies, to conduct an ‘overall evaluation’ of special courts set up to expeditiously try criminal cases involving MPs and deputies, to assess their functionality, effectiveness and overall impact.
The proposals were submitted under the Ministry of Justice’s Scheme for Action Research and Studies on Judicial Reforms, which falls under the Ministry of Justice.
Following the Supreme Court’s directives in 2017, the Central government has facilitated the setting up of 12 special courts in the states for speedy trial of criminal cases involving MPs and MLAs.
Twelve special courts were set up, two in Delhi and one each in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Currently, there are ten such courts operating in nine states.
The special courts of Bihar and Kerala were dissolved in December 2018 by order of the Supreme Court.
The performance of these special courts is monitored by the Supreme Court.
According to the call for proposals issued by the Ministry of Law, “this study would conduct a comprehensive evaluation of these special courts to assess their functionality, effectiveness and overall impact, since their performance is monitored by the Supreme Court and they are partly funded by the Government of India.”
According to the special courts dashboard accessed on Monday, the two special courts in Delhi have no pending cases and none have been completed yet.
Similarly, the sole court functioning in Uttar Pradesh has disposed of 50 cases and 1,137 are pending. In Madhya Pradesh, there is such a court which has disposed of five cases and 319 are pending.
In Maharashtra, the court has disposed of 13 cases, while 419 are still pending.
Besides the special MP-MLA courts, the department has also invited proposals to explore the functioning of special fast-track courts, Gram Nyayalayas (village courts) and the Tele-law scheme.
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First publication: Aug 19, 2024 | 3:54 PM IST