CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to expedite proceedings in the 561 cases registered against MPs and MLAs in the state.
The first bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice J Sathya Narayana Prasad issued the direction when a suo motu case on monitoring the progress of the cases registered against MPs and MLAs came up for hearing.
Advocate General PS Raman informed the court that 561 cases registered against the legislators have been pending and some of them are under investigation and others are at the trial stage. Out of the total cases, 20 were filed under the Prevention of Corruption Act against MP/MLAs and nine of them are in the advanced stage of trial.
“The cases which are pending for framing of charge need to be expedited,” the bench directed.
It asked state public prosecutor (SPP) Hasan Mohammed Jinnah, who had submitted the status report on the cases, to take stock of these matters. The bench said, “There are cases under investigation and these cases are effectively proceeded with.”
It directed the state to file a status report on the progress of these cases against the legislators and posted the matter to June 20.
The suo motu case was taken up by the court following an order of the Supreme Court to fast-track cases pending against legislators. The HC had recently issued directions to the special court for MP/MLA cases to furnish details of such cases and ordered the state govt to collect complete details and submit before the court.