The central government has proposed in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on December 11 that 12 special courts may be set up to try "1,581 criminal cases" pending against legislators across the country. Seeking time to collect the actual data, the affidavit states that at present, the government doesn't have data on the exact number of cases pending. The SC will consider the government's proposal when it hears the matter on December 14. On November 1, the Supreme Court had asked the government to formulate a scheme to set up special courts for trial of criminal cases against legislators. The court was hearing a PIL filed by Delhi BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, seeking a lifelong ban on convicted politicians from contesting elections. "As per the directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, it is proposed to have 12 special courts with an estimated expenditure of Rs 7.80 crore over a period of one year to dispose of all cases involving political persons," the law ministry said in its affidavit. This includes two special courts for trying cases against MPs and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. "The strategy proposed ... is to set up special courts under a central scheme exclusively for expediting criminal cases involving political persons, on the lines of fast-track courts which were set up by the central government for a period of five years… The target is to dispose of 1,581 criminal cases involving MPs/ MLAs within a time frame of one year, as set by the Hon'ble Supreme Court," it said. The Centre submitted that Rs 65 lakh would be required for setting up each court, adding up to a total of Rs 7.8 crore. The number of courts "has been calculated on the basis of the 11th Finance Commission analysis that one such court can dispose of 165 cases per annum", said the government. In states where there are less than 65 cases, it has been proposed that the cases should be sent to the existing fast-track courts. In March 2014, the apex court had directed that cases against people's representatives should be disposed of within a year.