Almost all Kerala MPs and nearly half of Lok Sabha members face criminal charges

A report presented to the Supreme Court on Monday revealed that 251 out of 543 Lok Sabha members are facing criminal charges. Of these, 170 MPs face serious charges with potential prison sentences of five years or more, reported TOI on Tuesday.

As per the report, senior advocate Vijay Hansaria submitted an 83-page report, compiled from various high courts, to Justices Dipankar Datta and Manmohan.

Kerala has the highest percentage of MPs facing criminal charges, with 19 out of 20 (95%) facing such accusations. Eleven of those Kerala MPs face serious charges. Other states with a high percentage of MPs facing criminal charges include Telangana (82%), Odisha (76%), and Jharkhand (71%). Roughly half of the MPs from Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh face criminal cases.


States with fewer MPs facing charges include Haryana and Chhattisgarh (one MP each), Punjab (two MPs), Assam and Delhi (three MPs each), Rajasthan (four MPs), Gujarat (five MPs), and Madhya Pradesh (nine MPs).

According to the TOI report, Hansaria highlighted the slow progress of trials in these cases, noting, “Hansaria told the court that though the SC had in 2023 directed the jurisdictional HCs to set up a bench to monitor the progress of trial in criminal cases pending against sitting/former legislators, there were many states which are yet to set up designated courts for this purpose and because of which in some states such cases the trial is pending for more than two decades.” He reported 4,732 criminal cases pending trial against current and former legislators as of January 1. Uttar Pradesh leads with 1,171 pending cases, followed by Odisha (457), Bihar (448), and Maharashtra (442).

Hansaria also pointed out issues like frequent adjournments, non-appearance of accused, and added workload for designated courts. The Supreme Court referred the matter to the Chief Justice of India to form a three-judge bench to address the issues raised. The report cited data collected from various high courts.

(With inputs from TOI)