Criminal cases against 16 top J&K politicians
Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Oct 20: As the Government has provided details of politicians of Jammu and Kashmir against whom criminal cases are pending before various courts; the High Court today directed the trial court to inform it about the status of trial of these cases by or before the next date of hearing.
The PIL was registered as Suo Moto on the directions of the Supreme Court, directing for monitoring the progress of the trial of cases pending against the sitting and former Member Parliaments and Members of Legislative Assembly.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey and Justice Sanjay Dhar has been informed that so far the criminal trial of 16 politicians have been collected and the bench after this information said that ensuring progress in the trial of these cases it is necessary to seek status of the trial from the concerned courts through Registrar Judicial of this Court.
Court accordingly has directed that the Registrar Judicial shall seek status report from the courts below where the cases against these politicians are pending.
The criminal trial of politicians which has been submitted before the court are Balwant Singh Mankotia, Abdul Majid Wani, Dr Gagan Bhagat, Ghulam Mohi-uddin Mir, Mohammad Altaf Wani, Shabir Ahmad Khan, Mansoor Hussain, Abdul Rahim Rather former MLAs, late Iftikhar Hussain Ansari the then Minister, late Satpal Lakhotra, Prem Nath, former MLAs, Nayeem Akhter former Works Minister, Zahoor Ahmad Mir, former MLA, Tara Chand, Mohammad Akbar Lone and Mubarak Gul, former Speakers of Legislative Assembly.
Their cases are pending before the courts of 1st Addl. Sessions Court Jammu, CJM Court Jammu, JMIC R S Pura, Special Mobile Magistrate Pulwama, Addl. Special Mobile Magistrate Pahalgam, CJM Srinagar, Special Judge Anti-Corruption Anantnag, Special Judge Anti-Corruption Jammu, CJM Jammu, Special Judge Anti-Corruption Srinagar and High Court respectively.
The proceedings against these politicians in these courts are emanating from the FIR bearings Nos 16/2005 in police station Mira Sahib, 77/1993 in P/S Doda, 66/2019 in P/S RS Pura, 3/2021 in P/S Pulwama, 20/2015 in P/S Pahalgam, 09/2014 in P/S Shaheed Gunj Srinagar, 21/1993 in P/S VoK, 26/2011 in P/S VoK, 175/1998 in P/S Trikuta Nagar, 225/2000 in P/S Bakshi Nagar, 10/2019 in P/S Crime Branch Kashmir, 47/2014 and PE-1/2015 respectively.
Amongst these charges have been framed against Balwant Singh Mankotia, Gh. Mohi-uddin Mir, Mohammad Altaf Wani, Shabir Ahmad Khan, Mansoor Hussain, Abdul Rahim Rather, Late Iftikhar Hussain Ansari, Late Satpal Lakhotra and Prem Nath under various Sections of RPC and IPC.
The DB also directed the Commissioner/Secretary to Government Home Department, Union Territory of Ladakh to submit the details of the cases pending against the sitting/former Legislators (MPs or MLAs) within two weeks.
The three judge bench of Supreme Court in a matter while passing a direction to all High Courts of the country asked the Chief Justices while preparing the action plan also consider, in the event the trials against any politician is already ongoing in an expeditious manner, whether transferring the same to different court would be necessary and appropriate.
The CJs of HCs, Supreme Court asked, shall designate a special bench, comprising themselves and their designate in order to monitor the progress of these trials. “The CJs shall send their additional suggestions, if any, for the purpose of expedient disposal of pending criminal cases against the legislators”, Supreme Court said.
“The action plan with comments and suggestions of the CJs of the High Courts, are to be sent to the Secretary General of this court preferably within a week” SC said. It has further been asked to CJs to list forthwith all pending criminal cases involving sitting or former Legislators, particularly those wherein a stay has been granted, before an appropriate bench comprising CJ and other Judges.
The Supreme Court had also directed that no prosecution against a sitting or former MP or MLA shall be withdrawn without the leave of the High Court and asked for examination of withdrawals in light of the guidelines as laid down by the Supreme Court. It has also been cleared that in case passing of any stay order is necessary then in such eventuality courts should hear the matter on a day-to-day basis and dispose of the case expeditiously preferably within a period of two months without any necessary adjournment. “It goes without saying that the COVID-19 conditions should not be an impediment to the compliance of these directions, as these cases could be conveniently heard through video conferencing”, read the SC order.
HCs have been directed to designate a Judicial Officer for all such cases, who shall try these cases on priority basis and the judicial officer can be allotted their work depending on the workload, number and nature of criminal cases against MPs and MLAs and such judicial officer shall have continuity of tenure for minimum period of two years.
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