NEW DELHI: In an important decision intended to put an end to the inordinate delay in the prosecution of politicians in criminal cases, the Centre has decided to set up special courts to deal exclusively with cases against 1,581 MPs and MLAS and to dispose them of within a year.Centre’s decision could be a body blow to politicians who, despite facing serious charges, have stayed in Parliament and state assemblies because of delays in trying them. All of them should come under the purview of the special courts and their fate could be decided within a year.Complying with the direction of Supreme Court which had asked the Centre to set up special courts for tainted lawmakers, the government had told the court that 12 such courts will be constituted across the country to decide cases against lawmakers who are facing serious criminal charges. Two special courts will handle cases against 228 MPs and other 10 courts will be set up in as many states —Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telengana, UP and West Bengal— where number of tainted MLAs are more than 65.The government also placed the scheme framed by it for special courts before the court and said that Rs 7.80 crore had been earmarked for the scheme which would be in operation for a year. It said that number of special courts to be constituted was decided on the basis of presumption that each court would be able to dispose of 165 cases per annum and 12 courts would bring to an end the long pending cases against MPs and MLAs.“Disposing of 1,581 criminal cases involving political persons within a time frame of one year as directed by SC is the aim as well as the objective of the scheme. It is proposed to set up a total of 12 special courts across the country in various states to decide such cases at an expenditure of Rs 7.80 crore. On December 8, Department of Expenditure in Ministry of Finance has given in-principle approval for the same,” the government said in its affidavit.The Centre said that in other states, where the number of cases tainted MLAS are less than 65, such cases could be tried in existing Fast Track Courts and no special court needed to be set up. The centre filed its affidavit in compliance of SC order which had directed it to frame scheme while hearing a PIL filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking life ban on convicted lawmakers from electoral politics.After the Election Commission , for the first time, favoured life ban on convicted MPs and MLAs from contesting polls, the apex court had asked the government to urgently set up special courts to ensure that trials of lawmakers are completed within a year as laid down by the apex court in 2015. The court had said compliance with the one-year deadline had not been possible because regular courts were overburdened and it was not possible for them to fast-track cases against politicians.As per the scheme framed by the Centre, all the expenditure for setting up of special court would be borne by it. Other issues relating to appointment of judicial officers, public prosecutor, court staff and other requirement of man-power and infrastructure will be dealt with by apex court in consultation with state governments.