New Delhi
In an order aimed at de-criminalising politics, the Supreme Court today said it wanted the Centre to set up special courts to exclusively hear cases against lawmakers facing criminal charges.

A Bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked the government to come up with a scheme for constituting and funding such courts on the lines of fast-track courts (FTCs) which were set up by the Centre for a period of five years and extended further. It has since been discontinued.

“Setting up of special courts and infrastructure would be dependent on the availability of finances with the states and the problem can be resolved by having a central scheme for setting up courts to exclusively deal with criminal cases involving political persons on the lines of the fast-track courts,” it noted.

The Bench, which is seized of a PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking lifetime ban on contesting of polls by convicted politicians, asked the government to spell out the amount of money that can be earmarked for special courts.

On Additional Solicitor General Atmaram NS Nadkarni’s request, it gave six weeks to the Centre to submit the scheme and posted the matter for further hearing on December 13.

The order came after the top court was informed that 1,581 lawmakers had criminal cases pending against them at the time of filing nominations in 2014. It sought to know how many of those cases had been disposed of by now and what was the outcome in terms of acquittal or conviction.