Criminals as MPs

The Gauhati High Court has issued a very significant direction calling for listing all the criminal cases involving Members of Parliament and Members of the Legislative Assemblies of the states that fall under its jurisdiction and are pending before the High Court, as well as lying before its outlying benches. As prominently reported by this newspaper in its Sunday edition, the High Court’s direction has been issued in connection with a PIL registered suo moto by it pursuant to a Supreme Court direction dating back to September 16, 2020. The Supreme Court on its part, had issued its direction with the special objective of monitoring the progress made in the cases pending against a number of MPs and MLAs before the courts at different levels, including high courts across the country. As has been reported, the High Court has directed its Registrar General to prepare and furnish a detailed report indicating the number of pending cases involving MPs and MLAs as well as their respective current status. The Gauhati High Court has jurisdiction over lower courts in Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh. Going by the direction, the District and Sessions Judges and Special Judges of the districts of the four states are now required to take immediate steps to list all pending cases involving MPs and MLAs. If necessary, instructions are to be issued for the day-to-day hearing of those cases for their expeditious disposal, it has been stated. The Gauhati High Court order comes at a time when the results of the election to the eighteenth Lok Sabha are expected in a couple of days. It is pertinent to note that media reports quoting an election watchdog called the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have said that out of the 8,337 candidates who have contested the just-concluded Lok Sabha Elections 2024, it analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 8,360 candidates and found that at least 1190 candidates (about 20 percent) have declared criminal cases against themselves. Among them, about 14 percent have declared serious criminal cases, including charges related to rape, murder, attempts to murder, and crimes against women. In contrast, ADR found that about 19 percent of the candidates who contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections had declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits. As claimed by the ADR analysis, at least 197 candidates contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections have cases related to crimes against women. Out of these, 16 candidates have charges related to rape (IPC Section 376) and repeated rape on the same woman. The ADR analysis also gave a party-wise break-up of the number of candidates who had declared pending criminal cases against them. Of them, 191 belong to the BJP, 143 to the Congress, 63 to the BSP, and 33 to the CPI (M), apart from 550 independents. This shows that a large number of people with criminal backgrounds are also in the process of entering the new Lok Sabha. It is a blot on the celebrated democracy of our country.