KOCHI: The Kerala government has withdrawn 36 criminal cases against sitting or former MPs and MLAs between September 2020 and July 2021 without obtaining permission from the High Court.
As per an affidavit submitted by the registrar general of Kerala High Court before the Supreme Court, 16 criminal cases were withdrawn from Thiruvananthapuram Judicial First Class Magistrate Court III and 10 cases from Judicial First Class Court IV under CrPC section 321 without the approval of the High Court. Besides, five cases were withdrawn from Taliparamba Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, while four cases where withdrawn from Kannur Judicial First Class Magistrate Court and one from Mananthavadi Judicial First Class Magistrate Court II.
The Supreme Court had recently held that no prosecution against sitting or former MPs and MLAs will be withdrawn without the permission of the High Court of the state concerned.
The affidavit was filed based on the order of the Supreme Court on August 10 to provide details regarding the presiding officer and case statistics of the special additional chief judicial magistrate court to try criminal cases against MPs and MLAs. This is the only special court in the state. The SC also sought the details of cases pending in various other courts against sitting and former legislators.
The affidavit stated that the Special Court, Ernakulam, was established with jurisdiction throughout the state and in 2018, the jurisdiction was limited to Ernakulam. Subsequently, all the chief judicial magistrates except CJM court, Ernakulam, were directed to try cases involving legislators.
The affidavit stated that 381 cases were pending in the state against MPs and MLAs as on July 31, 2021. Among the districts, Thiruvananthapuram has 80 pending cases, while Kollam has 28 pending cases. In one case the accused was acquitted. Pathanamthitta has 12 pending cases and Alappuzha has 20 case. In Kottayam, there are 9 cases pending, while there are 23 cases in Idukki. Ernakulam has 75, the second highest number of pending cases in the state. The pending cases in other districts are Thrissur (14), Palakkad (25), Malappuram (7), Wayanad (27), Kozhikode (19), Kannur (33) and Kasaragod (5), stated the affidavit.