Spl courts set up by SC to try netas are valid: Amicus

One-liner: Special courts for expeditious disposal of cases against sitting and former MPs and MLAs, set up by the Supreme Court under its special power, are valid and no illegality can be attached to the trial of cases by these courts, the apex court was informed on Tuesday.

Submissions made: The submissions were made before a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana in a report by amicus curiae (friend of the court) Vijay Hansaria and Sneha Kalita.

• It has been alleged that such trials by sessions judge consequently lead to deprivation of one judicial forum for the right to appeal which is ordinarily available to other accused
• The 34-page report has been filed by the amicus curiae in a 2016 Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay seeking a life ban on lawmakers convicted in heinous criminal cases.

Fair trial: All the accused persons are granted a fair trial as per the Constitutional norm. The cases are tried by judicial officers trained in law and no special procedure less advantageous to accused persons has been prescribed for trial of the cases. 

• The cases are tried by the independent and qualified judges as per the procedure laid down in the Code of Criminal Procedure
• MPs and MLAs constitute a separate class in themselves and expeditious trial of criminal cases against them by special courts does not suffer from any Constitutional infirmity, the report said

Source: PTI