The Supreme Court on Thursday accepted the Centre’s plan to set up 12 special courts to try pending criminal cases against MPs and MLAs. The bench asked the government to ensure that these courts start working by March 1, PTI reported.

On Tuesday, the government told the Supreme Court it will set up these 12 special courts in a year at a cost of Rs 7.8 crore. The bench approved the government’s proposal and asked it to divide the amount among the states where these courts will be set up.

Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Navin Sinha also gave the Centre two months to collect information about the cases involving lawmakers, The Indian Express reported. On Tuesday, the government told the court it did not have data on how many of these cases had already been heard and decided on and how many new cases were filed between 2014 and 2017.

The Supreme Court’s response was on a Public Interest Litigation filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who had asked for lifelong bans on convicted politicians. The bench listed the matter for further hearing on March 7.

In November, the Supreme Court had given the government six weeks to submit a plan to set up these special courts. The bench had then said trials of MPs and MLAs should be completed in a year.