Non-disclosure of criminal info: Supreme Court fines BJP, others

The Supreme Court on Tuesday slapped fines between Rs  1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh on the BJP, Congress, and six other political parties for failing to disclose details of candidates with criminal backgrounds in the Bihar Assembly Elections, Bar & Bench reported.
 
The SC had earlier directed these political parties to furnish the details on their official websites, in newspapers, and on social media. The report claimed the BJP, Congress, RJD, Janata Dal (U), CPI, and Lok Jan Shakti Party were fined Rs 1 lakh for partial non-compliance. Two other parties — CPI (M) and NCP — were found to be in total non-compliance and were fined Rs 5 lakh each for total non-compliance.

 
Cases against MPs, MLAs
 

Despite strict monitoring and directions, the number of pending cases against Members of Parliament and MLAs increased from 4,122 cases in December 2018 to 4,859 in September, 2020, the Supreme Court was informed on Tuesday.
 
Senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, appointed amicus curiae by the apex court, to assist it in a PIL for fast-tracking criminal cases against lawmakers, flagged several reasons for increase in pendency such as state governments ordering withdrawal of cases, jurisdiction of special courts and fixed tenure of two years for judicial officers presiding the special courts for MPs and MLAs.

 
The amicus curiae's report, filed through advocate Sneha Kalita, said in Bihar, which has been submitting monthly status reports, there were 557 cases in September 2020 and the figure increased to 582 cases in July 2021. The 13th report by the amicus on pendency of cases against lawmakers was taken on record by a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana and several directions were passed.