Guwahati, March 13: The Gauhati High Court has asked for specific information from the concerned courts to ascertain the reasons as to why cases involving Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) have remained pending for so long without any progress.
The High Court issued the directive while hearing a suo motu writ petition regarding status of pending cases involving MPs and MLAs.
On January 28, 2025, pursuant to the Court’s order, the Registry submitted a report dated March 10, 2025 indicating the status of the cases pending in the states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh involving MPs/MLAs.
“After examining the report, we find that since the last listing of this case on January 28, 2025, as many as seven out of the 15 cases pending in the Principal Seat of the Gauhati High Court have been disposed of. The report further discloses that the remaining eight cases pending in the Principal Seat are at an advanced stage of hearing and therefore, those are also likely to be disposed of soon. From the above, it is apparent that significant progress has been made in the matter of disposal of cases pending in the Principal Seat involving MPs/ MLAs since this suo-motu case was registered,” a division bench of the High Court noted.
In regard to the cases pending in the district judiciary in Assam, involving MPs/MLAs, the Court noted that there are a number of such cases where the proceeding has been held up at the stage of appearance of the accused persons and most of the cases were registered more than a decade back.
“From the report submitted by the Registry it is not clear as to why those cases are pending for so long merely for ‘appearance’. If it is really the case where the appearance of the accused could not be secured for any reason including the reason of failure on the part of the complainant to take steps for issuance of process, then also, it is not clear as to why consequential orders could not be passed by the Court in those matters,” the Court said.
Subsequently, the Court directed the Registry to call for relevant information from the concerned authorities indicating the reason as to why these cases could not progress further and also obtain information regarding the relevant orders that have been passed by the concerned court so as to deal with the situation.