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Union of India - Section
Section 180 in The Special Courts Act, 1979
180.
An Act to provide for the speedy trial of a certain class of offences.Whereas Commissions of Inquiry appointed under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, have rendered reports disclosing the existence of prima facie evidence of offences committed by persons who held high public or political offices in the country and others connected with the commission of such offences during the operation of the Proclamation of Emergency, dated the 25th June, 1975, issued under clause (1) of article 352 of the Constitution;And whereas investigations conducted by the Government through its agencies have also disclosed similar offences committed during the period aforesaid;And whereas the offences referred to in the recitals aforesaid were committed during the operation of the said Proclamation of Emergency, during which a grave emergency was clamped on the whole country, civil liberties were curtailed to a great extent, important fundamental rights of the people were suspended, strict censorship was imposed on the press, judicial power were severely crippled and the Parliamentary democratic system was emasculated;And whereas all powers being a trust, and holders of high public or political offices are accountable for the exercise of their powers in all cases where Commissions of Inquiry appointed under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 or investigations conducted by Government through its agencies disclose offences committed by such holders;And whereas it is the constitutional, legal and more obligation of the State to prosecute persons involved in the said offences;And whereas the ordinary criminal Courts due to congestion of work and other reasons cannot reasonably be expected to bring those prosecutions to a speedy termination;And whereas it is imperative for the efficient functioning of Parliamentary democracy and the institutions created by or under Constitution of India that the commission of offences referred to in the recitals aforesaid should be judicially determined with the utmost dispatch;And whereas it is necessary for the said purpose to establish additional Courts presided over by sitting Judges of High Courts;And whereas it is expedient to make some procedural changes whereby avoidable delay in the final determination of the innocence or guilt or the persons to be tried is eliminated without interfering with the right to a fair trail;Be it enacted by Parliament in the Thirtieth Year of the Republic of India as follows:| Received the assent of the President on 16.5.1979 and published in the Gazette of India, Ext., Pt.II, Section 1, dated 17.5.1979. |