Enquiry appointed under the Commissions of Enquiry Act, 1952 have rendered reports disclosing the existence of prima facie evidence of offences committed by persons who have 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 25th June, 1975, and during the preceding period commencing 27th February, 1975 when it became apparent that offenders were being screened by those whose duty it was to bring them to book; 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 or continued during the operation 494 of the Promulgation of Emergency dated 25th June, 1975, during which a grave emergency was clamped on the whole country, civil liberties were withdrawn to a great extent, important fundamental rights of the people were suspended, strict censorship on the press was placed and judicial powers were crippled to a large extent; AND WHEREAS it is the constitutional, legal and moral obligation of the State to prosecute persons involved is 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 functioning of parliamentary democracy and the institutions created by or under the 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 create additional courts presided over by a sitting judge of a High Court in India or a person who has held office as a judge of a `High Court in India; AND WHEREAS it is expedient to make some procedural changes whereby avoidable delay in the final determination of the guilt or innocence of the persons to be tried is eliminated without interfering with the right to a fair trial; BE it enacted by Parliament in the Twenty ninth year of the Republic of India as follows: 1.