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The Bombay High Court took up suo motu cognizance of the pending cases against elected representatives (MLAs and MPs) and directed State government to provide data wherein trial court proceedings against them have been stayed by the court through interim orders.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Sandeep Shinde took up suo motu PIL in accordance with the directives of the Supreme Court, which had ordered high courts of all states to monitor such cases.

As per a report in Indian Express, the Supreme Court had passed various judgements for “decriminalisation of politics” by concluding criminal prosecutions against the legislators in view of “rising wave of criminalisation occurring in politics”.

The apex court had directed to set up special courts in every district for trial of all criminal cases against MPs and MLAs. It had also asked the Chief Justices of every High Court to formulate a blueprint for expeditious disposal of such cases.

On Friday, the bench sought to know from Advocate General (AG) Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, if the other directives issued by the apex court have been complied with or not.

AG Kumbhakoni informed the bench that while some directives had been adhered to, some were yet to be implemented.

"For instance, we have constituted special courts etc but the directives regarding special benches are yet to be complied with," the AG submitted.

Hearing the submission, CJ Datta pointed out that his bench would first consider cases against elected representatives, which have been stayed by high court.

"Let us first take those bunch of cases where proceedings are stayed. We will consider if these stays are necessary or can be vacated so that the matter is disposed of expeditiously," noted the bench.

Meanwhile, the state government data showed that before the high court there are 51 cases against MPs and MLAs. The data showed that 19 cases are pending before the Mumbai bench of the high court (principal seat), while 21 cases before the Aurangabad and 9 before Nagpur benches. It further stated that two such cases are pending before the high court bench at Goa.