326 MPs, 14 CMs have criminal cases against them, amicus curiae and senior advocate Vijay Hansaria tells the top court

As more than 4,000 cases against  politicians continue to hang fire, amicus curiae and senior advocate Vijay Hansaria on Monday urged the Supreme  Court to issue direction for issuance of non-bailable warrants (NBWs) against the accused who failed to appear on two consecutive hearings.

In all cases, where the accused has not appeared on two consecutive hearings, non-bailable warrants of arrest shall be issued,” Hansaria said in a 96-page report submitted to the top

“The courts designated as Special Court MP/ MLA will exclusively conduct trials against MPs/ MLAs; and only when trials of these cases are concluded, other cases would be taken up. The Principal District and Session Judges of all the districts will allocate regular court work to the Special Court MP/ MLA only when trials of cases against MPs/MLAs are concluded,” he suggested.

According to Hansaria’s report, 251 members out of 543 in the Lok Sabha and 75 lawmakers out of 233 in the Rajya Sabha have criminal cases against them. Chief Ministers of 14 of the 28 states had declared criminal cases, including serious ones.

Telangana CM Anumula Revanth Reddy has 89 cases against him, followed by West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari, who has 29 cases, and Karnataka CM DK Shivakumar, who has 19 cases, Hansaria’s report stated. There were 4,192 criminal cases against MPs and MLAs.

The top court – which has been hearing a PIL seeking expeditious disposal of criminal cases against MPs and MLAs – is expected to take up the matter on Tuesday.

Courts& Judiciary

Despite monitoring of cases by the top court and high courts to ensure expeditious trials, the number of pending criminal cases against MPs and MLAs has remained almost at the same level since 2018, the report pointed out.

“In the Lok Sabha, out of 543 members, 251 members have criminal cases against them, of which 170 cases are serious criminal cases (punishable with five years of imprisonment or more).

“In the Rajya Sabha, out of 233 members, 75 (33 per cent) members have criminal cases against them, of which 40 (18 per cent) cases are serious criminal cases (punishable with five years of imprisonment or more),” the affidavit said while referring to a report published by the Association for Democratic Reforms.

According to the affidavit, filed through advocate Senha Kalita, 19 out of 20 MPs (95 per cent) from Kerala faced criminal charges, and 11 of them faced serious cases.

Of the 17 MPs from Telangana, 14 faced criminal charges (82 per cent), Odisha 76 per cent (16 of 21), Jharkhand 71 per cent (10 of 14), Tamil Nadu 67 per cent (26 of 39), around 50 per cent of MPs from other major states – Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh – faced criminal cases.

Haryana (10 MPs) and Chhattisgarh (11 MPs) have just one MP each facing criminal charges; Punjab has two out of 13, Assam has three out of 14, Delhi has three out of seven, Rajasthan has four out of 25, Gujarat has five out of 25 and Madhya Pradesh has nine out of 29 MPs with criminal charges.

Hansaria said 1,243 criminal cases were decided in 2025, while 1,050 new cases were registered in that year.