Guwahati, May 10: The Gauhati High Court on Wednesday directed the Registrar General of the High Court to submit a status report on the pending cases of Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) in four states – Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh – under its jurisdiction.
The directive came during the course of a suo moto proceeding before the Special Bench of the High Court, in terms of the judgment and order dated November 9, 2023, passed by the Supreme Court in WP(C) 699/2016, laying down guidelines for the expeditious disposal of cases pending against MPs and MLAs.
“The cases pending against the MPs, MLAs in Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, coming within the jurisdiction of this High Court, have been reflected in the table furnished in para 12 of the order dated November 9, 2023. However, we do not find any updated status report on record for passing fresh order(s) by the monitoring bench”, the bench observed.
Hence, the Court directed the Registrar General to collate relevant information and submit a status report indicating the number of cases along with the present status of the cases pending before the principal seat in Guwahati as well as the outlying benches of the Gauhati High Court, pertaining to MPs and MLAs.
The Registrar General was also directed to collate information and present in the report any stay order(s) operating in the matter and coming in the way of expeditious trial/disposal of the cases with specific particulars thereof.
The Court further ordered that a similar exercise should be carried out with regard to the cases pending before the district courts as well as in the court of the learned Special Judge(s) in the four states.
“The report, as called for by this court, be placed on record before the next date of hearing,” the bench ordered.