Chandigarh, September 29
No less than 42 FIRs are pending investigation against sitting and erstwhile MPs and MLAs in Punjab as on September 14. Besides this, as many as 99 cases were pending trial in courts across the state against MPs and MLAs. Information to this effect was furnished before the Punjab and Haryana High Court by the state today.
The information came more than a year after the High Court made its intent clear to put the cases involving sitting and erstwhile parliamentarians and legislators of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh in fast lane. As the matter came up for resumed hearing, Punjab Additional Advocate-General Gaurav Garg Dhuriwala placed before the Bench an affidavit filed by Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Litigation, Bureau of Investigation, Sarabjit Singh.
The Bench, during the previous date of hearing, had warned the two states regarding the imposition of heavy costs if compliance report of its previous orders was not submitted. The Bench also made it clear that the costs would be imposed upon the officials responsible to file the affidavit/status report and would be recovered from his/her salary.
The direction came after the Bench asserted compliance report by way of an affidavit had not been submitted by Haryana and Punjab within the time stipulated. “This is a fit case where heavy cost should be imposed upon the respondents. But keeping in view the fact that last opportunity has been prayed for, we adjourn the case”.
99 cases pending trial in courts
As many as 99 cases are pending trial in courts across the state against legislators and parliamentariansThe Bench had earlier sought information on the stage of trial, along with status of each case, including the witnesses examined and remainingThe Bench was hearing suo motu or court on its own motion matter “In Re: Special Courts for MPs/MLAs” for monitoring the progress of cases pending against the MP/MLAs
