New Delhi: The conviction rate of MPs and MLAs in criminal cases, tried by the special courts, is a little over six percent.
According to statistics compiled by the central government under the direction of the Supreme Court, out of 598 cases, 38 cases resulted in conviction while 560 others ended in acquittal of the accused lawmaker. This amounts to 6.35% convictions.
The data, presented before a bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, further disclosed that maximum conviction came from Odisha, which saw 10 convictions of MPs and MLAs from March till now.
It is followed by Kerala, which witnessed eight convictions but at the same time, 147 cases resulted in acquittal in Kerala. A total of 178 cases in Kerala had been transferred to the special courts.
Bihar, which leads the country with maximum number of criminal cases pending against MPs and MLAs, saw no conviction by any lawmaker. On the other hand, 48 cases resulted in exoneration of accused MPs and MLAs.
Other states that witnessed substantial number of acquittal include Tamil Nadu (68), Gujarat (42), Uttar Pradesh (29) and Madhya Pradesh (28).
The PIL, filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, was taken up for hearing by the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The bench clarified that it will monitor the progress of trials against MPs and MLAs and would seek periodical reports from the concerned states and high courts.
The court has also directed the chief secretaries and registrars general of defaulting states to lay statistics pertaining to pendency of cases, their status and the requirement to set up additional courts to fast-track trials against the lawmakers.
The bench will hear the case next on October 10.
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