NEW DELHI: Speaking about the Centre not furnishing details sought by it on setting up special courts to deal with cases involving politicians, the Supreme Court said the Centre is “unprepared”. In December 2017, the apex court had ordered setting of 12 special courts to deal with such cases. These courts should start functioning from March 1, 2018, the court had said.
A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi said, the government is compelling us to pass certain orders which we do not want to at this stage, “the Union of India is unprepared”.
The court was hearing a PIL by an advocate and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay seeking lifetime ban on convicted lawmakers and setting up of special courts for trying lawmakers accused of criminal offences.
In its affidavit filed in the court, the Centre has said that two special courts were to be set up in Delhi and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing on September 12.
