Analysis of Cases Against Karnataka MPs and MLAs

The Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka in the suo motu public interest litigation (WP 10240/2020) is monitoring the progress of trials before the Special Court dealing with criminal prosecutions against Members of Parliament, Members of the State Legislative Assembly, and Members of the Legislative Council.

With a view to analyse the progress of such cases, DAKSH has identified eight criminal cases that were filed against Members of Parliament, and 131 criminal cases that were filed against Members of the Karnataka State Legislative Assembly.

The detailed findings of our analysis has been provided below. In summary, it was found that the pending cases have been pending for an average of 5.4 years, while the disposed cases took 3.2 years to be disposed. The progress of cases varies widely depending on the court and district that the cases are/were in. Cases that are pending before, or were disposed by, the Special Court (Court Hall 82 of the Bengaluru City Civil and Sessions Court) took lesser time to progress through court, when compared to the time taken by the cases to progress in other courts. Further, cases against the sitting MLAs and MPs take longer to progress in court when compared to cases of similar case types in the Bengaluru City Civil and Sessions Court.

Sources:

Based on the affidavits filed before the Election Commission by the Members of Parliament and Members of the State Legislative Assembly, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has made publicly available information of the then-pending criminal cases against such persons. Using the information collated by ADR, DAKSH was able to identify and obtain data pertaining to 139 cases in the subordinate courts against 59 sitting MLAs and MPs from eCourts (the list of cases has been provided in the Annexure). Data from these cases have been analysed to submit the below findings.

Data sample:

We analysed 139 criminal cases, of which, 34 cases are pending, 51 cases have been disposed, and 54 cases were transferred from one court to another (for which we analysed case progress in the first court up to the date of transfer).

The cases analysed are before courts in the following districts:

District	Number of cases analysed
BAGALKOT	8
BALLARI	12
BELAGAVI	13
BENGALURU	45
BENGALURU RURAL	2
BIDAR	1
CHAMRAJNAGAR	2
CHIKKAMAGALURU	1
DAKSHINA KANNADA	3
DAVANGERE	5
DHARWAD	2
HASSAN	1
HAVERI	4
HYDERABAD (TELANGANA)	2
KALABURAGI	4
KOLAR	1
KOPPAL	3
MANDYA	4
MYSURU	3
RAICHUR	2
SHIVAMOGGA	7
TUMAKURU	1
UTTARA KANNADA	3
VIJAYAPURA	7
YADGIR	3

Analysis of progress of cases:

Pending cases

These cases have been pending for an average of 1,946 days (5.4 years). These cases have had on average 43 hearings and the average number of days between these hearings is 20 days. However, notably, there are also three pending cases filed in 2014 that have gone through over 300 hearings.

The average pendency of cases varies in each district with the four cases from Belagavi pending the longest, for an average of 2,845 days (7.8 years). The four pending cases in Belagavi have gone through 65 hearings with an average of 40 days between each hearing. Further, Bengaluru which has the highest numbers of cases (22 pending cases), has an average pendency of 1,759 days (4.8 years). The average number of hearings the cases in Bengaluru have already gone through is 34 hearings, and the average number of days between two consecutive hearings for cases in Bengaluru district is 19 days.

If we compare cases against MPs and MLAs that are before the Special Court, i.e. Court Hall 82 in Bengaluru’s City Civil and Sessions Court (19 cases), to cases before other courts (15 cases), we found that cases before Court Hall 82 have been pending for an average of 1,769 days (4.8 years), as opposed to cases before the other courts that have been pending for an average 2,170 days (6 years). The 19 cases before the Special Court have had an average of 40 hearings with the average number of days between these hearings being 17 days, while the 15 cases before other courts have had an average of 47 hearings with the average number of days between these hearings being 23 days.

Most cases (19 out of 34) are pending at the stage of notice/warrant/summons. Further, nine cases are pending at the stage of evidence.

Disposed cases

The average number of days disposed cases took to be disposed was 1,166 days (3.2 years). The average number of hearings taken to dispose the cases is 25 hearings, with the average number of days between each hearing being 31 days. The amount of time taken to dispose cases is most often lower than the average amount of time for which cases are pending in court.

The average time taken for disposal of cases varies in each district, with the 15 disposed cases from Bengaluru district taking an average of 835 days (2.3 years) to be disposed. The four disposed cases from Ballari district took the longest time for disposal at 2,819 days (7.7 years). The average number of hearings such cases went through in Ballari district is 58 hearings, with the average number of days between two consecutive hearings being 30 days.

If we compare cases against MPs and MLAs that are before the Special Court, i.e. Court Hall 82 in Bengaluru’s City Civil and Sessions Court (11 cases) to cases before other courts (40 cases), we found that cases before Court Hall 82 took an average of 890 days (2.4 years) to be disposed, as opposed to cases before the other courts which took an average of 1,244 days (3.4 years) to be disposed. The 11 disposed cases before the Special Court had an average of 28 hearings with the average number of days between those hearings being 20 days, while the 40 cases before the other courts had an average of 24 hearings per case with the average number of days between those hearings being 35 days.

In order to understand where the delay in progress takes place, we analysed the stage at which cases were getting stuck at the longest in the lifecycle of the disposed cases. It was found that disposed cases were stuck at the stages of framing of charges and evidence the longest. The average number of days spent at the stage of framing of charges was 443 days, over ten hearings. The average number of days spent at the stage of evidence is 369 days, over 15 hearings.

The nature of disposal and the time taken to dispose the cases are provided below:

Nature of disposal	Time taken for disposal in days	Count of cases
Contested-ACQUITTED	965	10
Contested-ALLOWED	680	5
Contested-ALLOWED OTHERWISE	10	1
Contested-ALLOWED/GRANTED AFTER FULL HEARING	38	1
Contested-BAIL GRANTED	17	1
Contested-CLOSED	1402	3
Contested-CONVICTED AND SENTENCED	2098	1
Contested-DISCHARGED	2315	1
Contested-DISMISSED	1096	1
Contested-DISPOSED OTHERWISE	2384	1
Contested-REJECTED	524	1
Uncontested-ALLOWED OTHERWISE	304	2
Uncontested-CLOSED	2166	5
Uncontested-COMMITTED TO SESSION COURT	2776	1
Uncontested-COMMITTED TO SESSIONS COURT	168	1
Uncontested-COMPOUNDED	1223	2
Uncontested-DISCHARGED	1372	4
Uncontested-DISMISSED	378	2
Uncontested-DISPOSED OTHERWISE	2458	5
Uncontested-DISPOSED OTHERWISE	155	1
Uncontested-QUASHED	1723	1
Uncontested-Settled in LOK ADALATH	414	1

Transferred cases

In addition to the cases analysed above that are either pending or have been disposed, we were also able to identify 54 cases that were transferred from one court to another for which we analysed case progress in the first court up to the date of transfer. It was found that the average amount of time such cases spent in the court prior to their transfer was 1,299 days (3.6 years) and had gone through 25 hearings on average.

Comparison of case progress

In order to understand and put in perspective the time taken for criminal cases in the Special Court to be disposed when compared to other criminal cases, we have analysed the progress of cases before the Special Court—Court Hall No. 82 (‘CH 82’)—and compared it to the progress of cases before 80 other City Civil and Sessions Court Halls (‘Other CHs’) in Bengaluru. To enable comparison, we have only analysed cases belong to the case types CC, CRLMISC, CRLRP, PCR, and SPLC at CH 82 and the Other CHs.

131 criminal cases at CH 82 have been pending for an average of 320 days, while 5,107 criminal cases at Other CHs have been pending for an average of 603 days. On the exclusion of cases belonging to the CRLMISC case type that includes bail matters which may remain pending for a shorter amount of time, it was found that cases before CH 82 remain pending for an average of 393 days (based on an analysis of 128 pending cases), while cases before Other CHs remain pending for 649 days (based on an analysis of 3,835 pending cases).

Regarding the time taken to dispose cases, it was found that cases before CH 82 took an average of 157 days to be disposed (based on an analysis of 147 disposed cases), while cases before Other CHs took 64 days to be disposed (based on an analysis of 1,26,482 disposed cases). However, on exclusion of cases belonging to the CRLMISC case type that includes bail matters, it was found that cases before CH 82 took an average of 185 days to be disposed (based on an analysis of 129 disposed cases), while cases before Other CHs took 730 days (based on an analysis of 16,294 cases).

Annexure

CNR number	Combined case number	District
KABK030014332012	CC-877-2012	BAGALKOT
KABK030016402013	CC-1649-2013	BAGALKOT
KABK030036562017	CC-2741-2017	BAGALKOT
KABK310012892016	CC-529-2016	BAGALKOT
KABK310013192016	CC-556-2016	BAGALKOT
KABK310013342017	CC-751-2017	BAGALKOT
KABK310013422013	CC-590-2013	BAGALKOT
KABK310023272017	CC-1362-2017	BAGALKOT
KABI010015852013	PCR-1-2013	BALLARI
KABI040000082005	CC-1600-2005	BALLARI
KABI040013192014	CC-752-2014	BALLARI
KABI050002932015	CC-70-2015	BALLARI
KABI050010722015	CC-464-2015	BALLARI
KABI050014252013	CC-789-2013	BALLARI
KABI060008082015	CC-605-2015	BALLARI
KABI080012752016	CC-546-2016	BALLARI
KABI200006352013	CC-316-2013	BALLARI
KABI300000012007	CC-56-2007	BALLARI
KABI400011392013	CC-183-2013	BALLARI
KABI410018882017	CC-891-2017	BALLARI
KABG060003812015	CC-162-2015	BELAGAVI
KABG060010002013	CC-473-2013	BELAGAVI
KABG070002772011	CC-421-2011	BELAGAVI
KABG070002782011	CC-422-2011	BELAGAVI
KABG070008882013	CC-452-2013	BELAGAVI
KABG080009212014	CC-347-2014	BELAGAVI
KABG080009222014	CC-348-2014	BELAGAVI
KABG080010602014	CC-420-2014	BELAGAVI
KABG080016042014	CC-641-2014	BELAGAVI
KABG210029452014	CC-3334-2014	BELAGAVI
KABG410009742015	CC-350-2015	BELAGAVI
KABG510007622018	CC-332-2018	BELAGAVI
KABGB10000152010	CC-322-2010	BELAGAVI
KABC010001152016	SPLC-12-2016	BENGALURU
KABC010004102016	SPLC-19-2016	BENGALURU
KABC010012162012	SPLC-47-2012	BENGALURU
KABC010019492016	SPLC-53-2016	BENGALURU
KABC010022912019	SPLC-52-2019	BENGALURU
KABC010043692012	SPLC-114-2012	BENGALURU
KABC010064172015	SPLC-124-2015	BENGALURU
KABC010068192018	SPLC-135-2018	BENGALURU
KABC010071192018	SPLC-152-2018	BENGALURU
KABC010071202018	SPLC-153-2018	BENGALURU
KABC010080842014	SPLC-124-2014	BENGALURU
KABC010091342012	PCR-33-2012	BENGALURU
KABC010091522014	SPLC-105-2014	BENGALURU
KABC010117502015	CRLMISC-3220-2015	BENGALURU
KABC010125222018	SPLC-286-2018	BENGALURU
KABC010125232018	SPLC-287-2018	BENGALURU
KABC010132702014	SPLC-21-2014	BENGALURU
KABC010144012014	SPLC-6-2014	BENGALURU
KABC010150452012	SPLC-15-2012	BENGALURU
KABC010165252018	SPLC-403-2018	BENGALURU
KABC010195212017	SPLC-394-2017	BENGALURU
KABC010197132012	PCR-55-2012	BENGALURU
KABC010261532016	SPLC-459-2016	BENGALURU
KABC010262762016	SPLC-469-2016	BENGALURU
KABC010262782016	SPLC-471-2016	BENGALURU
KABC010270932016	SPLC-488-2016	BENGALURU
KABC010276112015	SPLC-551-2015	BENGALURU
KABC010296332015	SPLC-596-2015	BENGALURU
KABC010296362015	SPLC-597-2015	BENGALURU
KABC010300322018	SPLC-759-2018	BENGALURU
KABC010313042018	SPLC-796-2018	BENGALURU
KABC010313172018	SPLC-797-2018	BENGALURU
KABC030073452011	CC-7341-2011	BENGALURU
KABC030283682013	CC-7453-2013	BENGALURU
KABC090000082018	CC-5-2018	BENGALURU
KABC090000092018	CC-6-2018	BENGALURU
KABC090000102018	CC-7-2018	BENGALURU
KABC0A0000902015	CRLMISC-5298-2015	BENGALURU
KABC0A0025132012	PCR-67-2012	BENGALURU
KABC0A0025192012	SPLC-47-2012	BENGALURU
KABC0A0025432012	PCR-33-2012	BENGALURU
KABC0A0025562012	SPLC-114-2012	BENGALURU
KABC0A0026012011	PCR-27-2011	BENGALURU
KABC0C0084302018	CC-52537-2018	BENGALURU
KABC0C0193862016	PCR-55750-2016	BENGALURU
KABR010028312017	CRLRP-82-2017	BENGALURU RURAL
KABR040051982017	CC-3436-2017	BENGALURU RURAL
KABD030053152014	CC-1819-2014	BIDAR
KACN020012382017	CC-230-2017	CHAMRAJNAGAR
KACN320013702017	CC-341-2017	CHAMRAJNAGAR
KACM030013572013	CC-545-2013	CHIKKAMAGALURU
KADK070043092016	CC-4066-2016	DAKSHINA KANNADA
KADK070052182018	CC-5111-2018	DAKSHINA KANNADA
KADK330007622016	CC-410-2016	DAKSHINA KANNADA
KADG010006232018	SPLCASE(LOK)-1-2018	DAVANGERE
KADG010008792018	SPLCASE(LOK)-3-2018	DAVANGERE
KADG010014132013	PCR-19-2013	DAVANGERE
KADG010018232018	SPLCASE(LOK)-4-2018	DAVANGERE
KADG010037022017	SPLCASE(LOK)-8-2017	DAVANGERE
KADW010008492018	CRLMISC-203-2018	DHARWAD
KADW010021612013	SPLC(CBI)-27-2013	DHARWAD
KAHS030098642016	CC-5797-2016	HASSAN
KAHV010025022016	CRLRP-151-2016	HAVERI
KAHV010027182013	SPLC(SVC)-12-2013	HAVERI
KAHV030001512011	CC-397-2011	HAVERI
KAHV210008452015	CC-329-2015	HAVERI
TSHC010022042012	CC-500012-2012	Hyderabad
TSHC010022072012	CC-500015-2012	Hyderabad
KAKB420012602013	CC-513-2013	KALABURAGI
KAKB720004272014	CC-122-2014	KALABURAGI
KAKB720006392013	CC-329-2013	KALABURAGI
KAKB720009332013	CC-455-2013	KALABURAGI
KAKL020021162013	CC-723-2013	KOLAR
KAKP020005682014	CC-286-2014	KOPPAL
KAKP410008932014	CC-512-2014	KOPPAL
KAKP410017552016	CC-825-2016	KOPPAL
KAMD410006422014	CC-279-2014	MANDYA
KAMD410018362014	CC-908-2014	MANDYA
KAMD410018882017	CC-1098-2017	MANDYA
KAMD510000672009	CC-64-2009	MANDYA
KAMS030006742008	MISC-5-2008	MYSURU
KAMS030027622015	CC-751-2015	MYSURU
KAMS030087692014	CC-1808-2014	MYSURU
KARC210004962013	CC-268-2013	RAICHUR
KARC510012802013	CC-332-2013	RAICHUR
KA14030017182017	CC-1289-2017	SHIVAMOGGA
KA14030017292017	CC-1293-2017	SHIVAMOGGA
KA14030023532013	CC-1536-2013	SHIVAMOGGA
KA14070006642017	CC-555-2017	SHIVAMOGGA
KA14070006852017	CC-556-2017	SHIVAMOGGA
KASM310028542016	CC-1518-2016	SHIVAMOGGA
KASM630008512013	CC-571-2013	SHIVAMOGGA
KATK210019312017	CC-794-2017	TUMAKURU
KAUK010019722017	CRLMISC-483-2017	UTTARA KANNADA
KAUK010019732017	CRLMISC-484-2017	UTTARA KANNADA
KAUKA30000132017	CRLMISC-5004-2017	UTTARA KANNADA
KAVP030005002001	CC-110-2001	VIJAYAPURA
KAVP030012672013	CC-636-2013	VIJAYAPURA
KAVP030012682013	CC-628-2013	VIJAYAPURA
KAVP030065892015	CC-4511-2015	VIJAYAPURA
KAVP300000292007	CC-58-2007	VIJAYAPURA
KAVP300002082007	CC-441-2007	VIJAYAPURA
KAVP300002092007	CC-488-2007	VIJAYAPURA
KAYG010006362018	CRLMISC-308-2018	YADGIR
KAYG030009092013	CC-241-2013	YADGIR
KAYG310000872016	CC-147-2016	YADGIR