The Madras High Court on Monday directed the State government to submit complete details regarding the number of criminal cases pending against MPs and MLAs in the State, the courts in which they are pending and the stage of the proceedings before those courts.
First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy asked Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram to ensure that the details were submitted in the court by January 30 so that they could be perused by the Bench on January 31, 2024.
The direction was issued during the hearing of a 2020 suo motu writ petition taken up by the court to monitor the progress of the cases against legislators. Since the Supreme Court had even recently reiterated the need for such monitoring, the Bench decided to call for details.
The Chief Justice told the Advocate General that since the Supreme Court had ordered constitution of a special Bench in the High Court to monitor and expedite the proceedings in such cases, the Bench led by him would begin issuing directions to the courts concerned after submission of the details.
