The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that it will set up 12 special courts across the country to dispose of criminal cases against MPs and MLAs since 2014.

Fifty-two sitting MLAs and five MPs from Odisha have criminal cases pending against them.

This was revealed from a study conducted by the Association for Democratic Reforms and the Odisha Election Watch, which was released on Wednesday. The data revealed that of 147 MLAs in the Odisha Assembly, 52 had declared pending criminal cases against them at the time of 2014 elections. Of them, 41 MLAs had declared "serious criminal cases" pending against them.

Among the political parties, the BJD having a strength of 117 members in the Assembly, has the maximum 32 MLAs, who have criminal cases pending against them, according to the study. Of them, 23 have "serious criminal cases" pending against them according to the affidavits filed by them before the Election Commission.

The 16-member Congress has nine MLAs with criminal cases, eight of them with serious charges. The BJP, which has total 10 members in the 147-member House, has eight MLAs with criminal cases, while seven of them have serious charges against them.

Besides, the two Independent MLAs declared that they had serious criminal cases. The lone Samata Kranti Dal legislator, too, faces serious criminal cases, as mentioned in his election affidavit.

Similarly, five MPs from the state have declared criminal cases pending against them. Out of 21 Lok Sabha members from Odisha, two from the BJD and one from the BJP have criminal cases pending against them. In the Rajya Sabha, of the 10 members from Odisha, two members are facing criminal charges.