Chennai, April 2 (IANS): The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Tamil Nadu Police to expedite proceedings in criminal cases against sitting and former MPs and MLAs.

A division bench of Chief Justice V. Sanjay Gangapurwala and Justice J.Sathya Narayana Prasad issued the direction on a suo motu petition taken up by the court on the request from the Supreme Court.

As it was informed that 561 criminal cases were registered against sitting as well as former MPs and MLAs under various charges, the court directed the police to file a status report before June 20.

Asked by the Chief Justice, the prosecution, represented by Advocate General P.S. Raman and State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohammed Jinnah, said that trials in 20 cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) against legislators were underway and nine of them were at an advanced stage of trial.

After recording submissions of the prosecution counsel, the bench ordered that the cases, where framing of charges is pending, must be expedited as it asked them to file a status report by June 20.