CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has disposed of the suo motu petition it had registered for creation of special courts for trial of cases against present and former MPs and MLAs.The move came after the State government on Monday submitted two notifications designating three Additional District & Sessions Judge Courts and 11 Magisterial Courts as special courts for dealing with criminal cases involving present and former MPs and MLAs of the State. The notifications issued on March 17 said the cases will be put to trial with effect from the date when such courts are made functional. Taking note of it, the division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray disposed of the writ petition.
In an order published on September 17, 2020, the Supreme Court had asked the Chief Justices of High Courts to come up with special benches for hearing long-pending criminal cases against politicians. In pursuant to the apex Court’s order, the High Court had registered the suo motu petition on September 23, 2020. Subsequently, the High Court had issued orders for creation of three special courts, one each in three revenue divisions and 11 courts of Judicial Magistrate (First Class).
According to the notifications, 11 courts of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) had been designated as special courts at Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jeypore, Sundargarh, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Balangir, Angul, Balasore, Baripada and Berhampur.Three Additional District & Sessions Judge Courts had been designated as special courts at Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and Bargarh.Though the suo motu petition was disposed of, the proceedings related to it over the past six months had not been able to bring to fore details of the criminal cases pending before courts across the State against both sitting and former MPs and MLAs.