The Yogi Adityanath government in UP has withdrawn 77 cases related to 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots without giving any reason.
Senior advocate Vijay Hansaria informed the Supreme Court of the development on Tuesday. These cases relate to offences entailing punishment of life sentence.
The move comes at a time when is Supreme Court is slated to hear a petition seeking quick disposal of cases against MPs and MLAs.
Vijay Hansaria, who is amicus curiae in the matter, also pointed out that the Karnataka government has withdrawn 62 cases without giving any reason, Tamil Nadu has withdrawn four cases, Telangana has withdrawn 14 cases and Kerala has withdrawn 36 cases.
In December last year, Uttar Pradesh had drawn up a list of leaders against whom cases were being withdrawn. The list included three BJP MLAs -- Sangeet Som, Suresh Rana, Kapil Dev - and right-wing leader Sadhvi Prachi.
In March this year, cases against 12 BJP leaders, including Rana and Som, and Sadhvi Prachi were dropped with the assent of a special court.
On August 10, the Supreme Court had ordered that state prosecutors cannot withdraw criminal cases against lawmakers without prior sanction from high courts.