KOCHI: The trial in cases registered against former and sitting Kerala MPs and MLAs is moving at a snail’s pace in courts across the state. In all, 391 cases against lawmakers are pending in the courts, a government report showed. Of those, 59 have been pending for more than 10 years, 100 for five to 10 years and the remaining 232 for less than five years. Warrants were issued in 55 cases, but just 12 were executed.
Of the 59 cases that are over a decade old, the police did not receive summonses in 29. Of the 30 summonses they received, 27 were served. Three were not served as the accused were absconding.
Twelve warrants were issued in the cases of which two were executed, while 10 were not due to reasons such as the accused having died, absconding or a stay ordered by the HC.
Expressing concern over the pendency of the cases, the High Court on Wednesday directed the state government and the court administration to instruct nodal officers to coordinate efforts for expediting service of summonses in cases pending for over 10 years.
It issued the order in a suo motu case initiated to monitor the progress of the pending cases against the MPs/MLAs.
In a warrant issued against Minister P A Mohamed Riyas, the reason for non-execution was ‘not found in person’.
In another case, against former MLA C K Saseendran, the police report said they “tried to execute the warrant personally on multiple occasions by visiting the respondent’s last known residence different times of the day. However, the respondent was found to be absent on each visit. Enquiries with neighbours revealed that the respondent has not been seen in the locality for several days.”
The government report said in the 100 cases pending for five to 10 years, the police did not receive 36 summonses. Of the 64 they did, 61 were served. Three summonses could not be served due to absence of accused in residential address or address mismatch. Nineteen warrants were issued of which 17 could not be executed due to reasons such as accused expired, accused bedridden, accused not present in address and the like.
Similarly, in the 232 cases pending for less than 5 years, 33 summonses were not received by police. It served 128 of the 199 summonses received. The remaining 71 could not be served due to reasons, including accused absconding, accused in judicial custody, recently received, etc. Warrants were issued in 24 of these cases. Eight were executed, 16 weren’t.
57 cases pending in Thiruvananthapuram
In the pending cases in Thiruvananthapuram district, 34 are against sitting MPs/MLAs, 21 involve former MPs/MLAs, while two involve sitting and ex-MPs/MLAs
Pending cases in Ernakulam, include 37 against sitting MPs/MLAs , 17 against ex-MP/MLAs, and five against sitting and former MPs/MLAs
In Kasaragod, 14 cases are pending involving sitting MPs/MLAs, while 24 are pending against former MPs/MLAs