Special Court for hearing cases of law makers is the ultimate in justice deliverance where cases related to them have been lingering for years as the Supreme Court rightly noted. There has been an indifferent attitude among the political class as they remain immune to law. They cling to their office by hook or crook to complete the term and even further. The Apex Court, in fact, was dusting off an old order to Trial Courts to complete trials in heinous offences against elected politicians within a year. However, due to a gap between intention and implementation, there are no statistics on the number of tainted politicians convicted so far. The latest exercise by the Court does have the potential for cleaning up the system because of matching enthusiasm by the Election Commission (EC) to keep out the Bahubalis from the electoral arena. The data on parliamentarians is sobering enough to warrant a Court-EC mandated special drive – almost 34 per cent have criminal cases, of which about 20 per cent are of a heinous nature. States are unenthusiastic about funding Special Courts for politicians; and, there is an acute shortage of Judges, partly because of the delay in finalisation of the Memorandum of Procedure for the appointment of more Judges. The second set of issues is conscientious and philosophical in character. As per Court records, a mere 1,500 people with criminal cases contested the elections. Given the way justice is generally delivered, is it prudent to set aside resources, human and material, to expressly try such a small lot? On the question of lifetime bans on convicted politicians, the government is “yet to take a stand”. The order could be a body blow to politicians who, despite facing serious charges, have stayed put in the arena because of delays in trying them. All of them should come under the purview of the Special Courts that the Apex Court wants to set up. In 2014, 1,581 lawmakers were facing prosecution in 13,500 cases, and the number since could have only increased.
