LUCKNOW: As per the law ministry’s order, the court will function from the Allahabad High Court's premises for which a judicial officer along with seven other employees are to be deputed.
As per the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) data, 143 of 403 Uttar Pradesh MLAs (about 36 per cent) have criminal cases registered against them. Of these 143 legislators, 107 are booked under heinous crimes such as murder, attempt to murder and abduction.
In the present state Assembly, Ajay Singh Lallu of the Congress and Mukhtar Ansari of the BSP (both having 16 cases each against them) top the list of MLAs with criminal credentials.
In November last year, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre to come up with a scheme to set up special courts for trying criminal cases against legislators. Subsequently, the Centre proposed to set up 12 special courts to try "1,581 criminal cases" pending against legislators across India at a cost of `7.80 crore over a period of one year to dispose of all such cases.
The Supreme Court had approved the Centre's proposal and directed it to ensure that those special courts were functional by March 1.
Till June, 10 of 12 special courts were set up and become functional. With the government’s Wednesday order, Uttar Pradesh joined the states having special courts to try the legislators having criminal cases pending against them.