Essay on Fast Track Courts in India (807 Words)

Essay on Fast Track Courts in India !

Delays in courts have been a cause for concern both for the Government and the judiciary. At the initiative of the Department of Justice, the Eleventh Finance Commission recommended a scheme for creation of 1734 additional courts, called the Fast Track Courts in the country for a period of five years for disposal of long pending sessions and other cases and allocated an amount of Rs. 502.90 crore. Initially 450 Fast Track Courts were launched across the country on April 1, 2001.

Out of the proposed 1734 courts, 1562 Fast Track Courts were functional as on 31-3-2005. These Fast Track Courts have disposed of 7.94 lakh cases out of 15.28 lakh cases transferred to them i.e. 52.09%. On the expiry of the term of these FTCs on March 31, 2005 the Central Government approved continuation of existing Fast Track Courts at a cost of Rs. 509 crores for a period of another five years i.e. upto March 31, 2010 which was further extended by one year.

However, the Central Government has reportedly refused to extend the scheme of fast track court beyond March 31, 2011. However, the State Governments are free to extend the term of Fast Track Courts functioning in the state, if they deem it necessary, at their own financial expense.

The Central Government has requested the State Government and High Courts to earmark at least one Fast Track Court in each district to exclusively deal with cases involving senior citizens, abuse of women and the disabled.

The FTCs hear cases, which come under the jurisdiction of the Sessions Court. These Courts give preference to cases pending for a long time and try to dispose them of expeditiously. Emphasising the need to fill expeditiously the vacancies of FTCs so as to make all such functional, the Supreme Court in Brij Mohan Lai v. Union of-India, directed the States and the Chief Justices of High Courts to ensure that all the vacancies are filled up within three months of the judgment.

Accordingly, the functioning of these Courts was revamped by the end of December, 2002. The impugned judgment of the Apex Court having approved the legal and constitutional validity of the Fast Track Courts provided fillip to the Centre and the States for expediting the constitution of more FTCs and making them fully functional.

Fast Tracks Court are no doubt a novel experiment aimed at clearing the massive backlog of cases pending in law courts. Particularly, they are expected to substantially reduce the number of undertrials languishing in different jails of the country and a vast majority of them will be set free, thereby reducing expenditure as well as burden on jails.

The scheme envisages setting up of an average of five FTCs in each district of the country. The state-wise distribution has however, been done keeping in view the pendency of cases and average rate of disposal of cases in courts. Ad hoc Judges from among retired Sessions/Additional Sessions judges are to be appointed to preside these courts. The power of appointment of judges has been vested in the High Courts.

The number of Fast Track Courts functioning in various states are given in the table below:—

Statement showing the state-wise number of Fast Track Courts in the country as on 31st March, 2007:

With the setting up of Fast Track Courts in certain States the work-load of Sessions Court is reduced considerably. As the Sessions Court has to do original work under more than two dozen different Acts, it never has the time to cope up with all that. It has to conduct trials under NDPS Act, Prevention of Corruption Act, Essential Commodities Act, and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and so on.

The appointment of Special Judge Remains in abeyance for years and the very purpose for which they were required to be appointed gets frustrated. Therefore, the setting up Fast Track Courts will certainly help in expeditious disposal of criminal cases which are long pending in Courts.