NEW DELHI: The Central government has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating the number of criminal cases pending against MPs and MLAs, in which Bihar leads the country, with Kerala holding the second place and West Bengal the third.
The government told the court that figures from 11 states had been received so far. Accordingly, 1,233 cases against MPs and MLAs have been transferred to 12 Special Fast Track Courts, and 136 cases have been disposed of. There are still 1,097 cases pending in courts across these 11 states.
Bihar had 260 cases transferred to the special courts, of which 11 have been disposed of in the last six months while 249 cases are yet to be decided.
West Bengal has been extremely sluggish in disposing of these cases. It had 215 such criminal cases pending against MPs and MLAs in March 2018 and not even one has been wrapped up till date. There was no information on the disposal of the 178 cases in Kerala.
Delhi followed Kerala in the number of cases against lawmakers. It had 157 cases triable by a magistrate. Of these, 44 were decided in the last six months. There were 142 cases pending against MPs and MLAs in Karnataka. Of them, 19 have been decided. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana had 64 pending cases while Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh had 50 and 28 pending cases, respectively.