ASHWINI KUMAR UPADHYAY versus UNION OF INDIA & ANR.

Citation: [2023] 14 S.C.R. 266 · Decided: 09-11-2023 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: D.Y. CHANDRACHUD · Disposal: Directions issued

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Judgment (excerpt)

[2023] 14 S.C.R. 266 : 2023 INSC 991
266
CASE DETAILS
ASHWINI KUMAR UPADHYAY 
v.
UNION OF INDIA & ANR.
(Writ Petition (C) No. 699 of 2016)
NOVEMBER 09, 2023
[DR. DHANANJAYA Y CHANDRACHUD, CJI, 
PAMIDIGHANTAM SRI NARASIMHA AND 
MANOJ MISRA, JJ.]
HEADNOTES
Issue for consideration: Writ petition in the nature of public interest 
sought expeditious disposal of criminal cases against elected members of 
the Parliament and Legislative Assemblies.
Constitution of India – Art. 32 – Expeditious disposal of criminal 
cases against elected members of the Parliament and Legislative 
Assemblies – Directions issued:
Held: (i) Learned Chief Justices of the High Courts shall register a 
suo-motu case with the title, “In Re: designated courts for MPs/MLAs” to 
monitor early disposal of criminal cases pending against the members of 
Parliament and Legislative Assemblies – The suo-motu case may be heard 
by the Special Bench presided by the Learned Chief Justice or a bench 
assigned by them; (ii) The Special Bench hearing the suo-motu case may 
list the matter at regular intervals as is felt necessary – The High Court may 
issue such orders and/or directions as are necessary for expeditious and 
eff ective disposal of the subject cases – The Special Bench may consider 
calling upon the Advocate General or the Public Prosecutor to assist the 
Court; (iii) The High Court may require the Principal District and Sessions 
Judge to bear the responsibility of allocating the subject cases to such court 
or courts as is considered appropriate and eff ective – The High Court may 
call upon the Principal District and Sessions Judge to send reports at such 
intervals as it considers expedient; (iv) The designated courts shall give 
267
priority: (1) fi rst to criminal cases against MP’s & MLA’s punishable with 
death or life imprisonment then to (2) cases punishable with imprisonment 
for 5 years or more, and then hear (3) other cases – The Trial Courts shall 
not adjourn the cases except for rare and compelling reasons; (v) The 
learned Chief Justices may list cases in which orders of stay of trial have 
been passed before the Special Bench to ensure that appropriate orders, 
including vacation of stay orders are passed to ensure commencement and 
conclusion of trial; (vi) The Principal District and Sessions Judge shall 
ensure suffi  cient infrastructure facility for the designated courts and also 
enable it to adopt such technology as is expedient for eff ective and effi  cient 
functioning; (vii) The High Courts shall create an independent tab on their 
website providing district-wise information about the details of the year 
of fi ling, number of subject cases pending and stage of proceedings – We 
make it clear that while monitoring the subject cases, the Special Bench 
may pass such orders or give such additional directions as are necessary for 
early disposal of the subject cases. [Para 20]
LIST OF CITATIONS AND OTHER REFERENCES
Public Interest Foundation v. Union of India (2015) 11 SCC 433; All 
India Judges Association v. Union of India & Ors., 2023 SCC OnLine SC 
673 – referred to.
OTHER CASE DETAILS INCLUDING IMPUGNED 
ORDER AND APPEARANCES
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION : Writ Petition (C) No.699 of 
2016.
(Under Article 32 of The Constitution of India)
Appearances:
Vijay Hansaria, Sr. Adv. (Amicus curiae), Ms. Sneha Kalita, Ms. 
Kavya Jhawar, Advs.
Gopal Saankaranarayan, Sr. Adv., Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, Ashwani 
Kumar Dubey, Rishabh Shukla, Vaibhav Tiwari, Ms. Tanya Srivastava, 
Advs. for the Petitioner.
ASHWINI KUMAR UPADHYAY  v. UNION OF INDIA 
268 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
[2023] 14 S.C.R.
Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General, K M Nataraj, Vikramjit Banerjee, 
A.S.Gs., Amit Anand Tiwari, B.K. Satija, Tapesh Kumar Singh, A.A.Gs., 
Ms. Sonia Mathur, Ms. V Mohana, P. N. Ravindran, S. C. Verma, Anup 
Rattan, Dr. Manish Singhvi, M. K. Maroria, Sr. Advs., K Parmeshwar, 
Mohd Akhil, Mrs. Rajat Nair, Apoorv Kurup, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Pranav 
Sachdeva, Balaji Srinivasan, Sahil Tagotra, Sidhant Kumar, Ms. Manyaa 
Chandok, Ms. Abhivyakti Banerjee, Shiv Ram Sharma, T. G. Narayanan 
Nair, Ms. Swathi H. Prasad, P. S. Sudheer, Mahesh Agarwal, Nishant Rao, 
E. C. Agrawala, Ms. Astha Sharma, Srisatya Mohanty, Ms. Anju Thomas, 
Sanjeev Kaushik, Ms. Mantika Haryani, Shreyas Awasthi, Himanshu 
Chakravarty, Ms. Ripul Swati Kumari, Bhanu Mishra, Ms. Muskan Surana, 
Ms. Anvita Dwivedi, Ms. Lihzu Shiney Konyak, Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, 
Ms. Limayinla Jamir, Amit Kumar Singh

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