Appellant wants special courts to try criminal cases against peoples’ representatives, public servants and members of the judiciary 

A PIL by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking direction from the Supreme Court for setting up of special courts that will deal with criminal cases against peoples’ representatives, public servants and members of the judiciary within a year came up before the bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha. The PIL also sought to debar the convicted persons from legislature, executive and judiciary for life, in keeping with the spirit of Article 14 read with Article 15 and 16 of the Constitution.

In the PIL, the appellant wanted the court to give directives to the Union government to provide adequate infrastructure for the special courts.

The court had earlier directed that any counter affidavit by the government may be filed within seven days and a rejoinder, if any, to the counter to be filed and to the counter already filed on behalf of the Election Commission of India may be filed within a week thereafter.

On April 18, the government counsel said that the affidavit will be filed by them that day as directed by the court. Justice Gogoi told Upadhyay: “You have a blanket prayer; don’t say things just for the sake of speaking; say something relevant. You ask the Union (government) to set up special courts, how can they do that? It is a state subject. In the second prayer, you ask for special courts, do you have figures to justify the constitution of these courts? How can we say something without looking at the affidavit of the Union of India?

The matter has been listed for final disposal on July 12.

—By India Legal Bureau