The Hindu : Politically-foisted cases minimal, says Jaitley

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Sunday, Apr 27, 2003

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Politically-foisted cases minimal, says Jaitley

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI April 26. The Union Law Minister, Arun Jaitley, said cases of political victimisation of filing FIRs against politicians were the most minimal in the country.

Mr. Jaitley gave this answer while replying to a question in the Lok Sabha on Friday raised by the Congress member, E.M. Sudarshana Nachiappan, whether filing of FIRs and chargesheets hastily, as was being done in Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, was the reason for the low rate of conviction.

Mr. Jaitley said the conviction rate in cognisable IPC crimes in relation to the total number of cases in which trial was completed was 40.9 per cent in 2001. The member wanted to know whether the conviction rate in India was six per cent of the cases taken up for trial, which was 16 per cent of the total number of cases registered.

He said out of the total FIRs registered in the country, the ones, which might relate to cases against politicians were minimal. In the overall conviction rate, those cases might not have much of a role, he said.

To another question from the AIADMK member, P.H. Pandian, the Minister for State for Home, I.D. Swami, said the Government would consider the suggestion for amending Sec. 439 Cr.P.C., so that a person who had spent half of the sentence in jail contemplated for the offence, would be entitled to be released on bail.

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