{"id":50982,"date":"2019-08-07T19:00:50","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T13:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?p=50982"},"modified":"2019-08-14T15:08:27","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T09:38:27","slug":"7-pm-the-hard-realities-of-indias-fast-track-courts-7th-august-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-the-hard-realities-of-indias-fast-track-courts-7th-august-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"7 PM | The hard realities of India\u2019s fast-track courts | 7th August, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Context:\n<\/strong>Fast\ntrack courts and the issues with these courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>More\nin News:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Minister for Women and Child\nDevelopment, informed the Rajya Sabha that the government has proposed to set\nup 1,023 fast-track courts to clear the cases under the Protection of Children\nfrom Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.&nbsp;<\/li><li>The Supreme Court in a suo motu petition\nhad issued directions, stating that districts with more than 100 cases pending\nunder the POCSO Act need to set up special courts that can deal specifically\nwith these cases.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Fast\nTrack Courts: <\/strong>Fast track courts&nbsp;(FTCs) are\nspecial&nbsp;courts&nbsp;for speedy trials. Fast track courts&nbsp;deal with\nspeedy disposal or solution of cases to make the judiciary more effective and\nto avail justice as&nbsp;fast&nbsp;as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The history of\nfast track courts in the country extends way back to 2001, when the then\nfederal government decided to set up these fast track courts to address and\ntackle the backlog of pending cases in the district courts, session courts and\nother subordinate courts. Setting up of subordinate courts such as the fast\ntrack courts falls under the jurisdiction of the State Government, who in\nconsultation with the High Court sets up such subordinates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pendency\nof cases in India: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>According to the&nbsp;<strong>latest\n\u2018National Judicial Data Grid statistics\u2019<\/strong>,&nbsp;as of April 2018, there\nare over three crore cases pending across the Supreme Court, the High Courts,\nand the subordinate courts. <\/li><li>The subordinate courts\naccount for over 86% pendency of cases, followed by 13.8% pendency before the\n24 High Courts. The remaining 0.2% of cases are pending with the Supreme Court.<\/li><li>According to a recently released report\nby the Ministry of Law and Justice, Department of Justice in June 2019, there\nwere 581 FTCs operational in the country, with approximately 5.9 lakh pending\ncases, Uttar Pradesh having the most number of cases.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Fast\ntrack Courts in India: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The&nbsp;11th Finance\nCommission&nbsp;had recommended a scheme for the establishment of 1734 FTCs for\nthe expeditious disposal of cases pending in the lower courts.<\/li><li>FTCs were to be established by the state\ngovernments in consultation with the respective High Courts. <\/li><li>An average of five FTCs&nbsp;was to be\nestablished in each district of the country. &nbsp;<\/li><li>The judges for these FTCs were appointed\non an adhoc basis. &nbsp;<\/li><li>The judges were selected by the High\nCourts of the respective states.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Issues\naffecting the functioning of Fast track courts:<\/strong> There are several\nfactors that have an impact on disposal of cases. Inadequate staff and IT\ninfrastructure, delay in getting reports from the understaffed forensic science\nlaboratories, frivolous adjournments and over-listing of cases in the cause\nlist are some of the variables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Vacancies\nin the High Courts and the Subordinate Courts: <\/strong>One of the\nreasons for the long delay in the disposal of cases is the high number of\nvacancies in position for judges in the High Courts and the District Courts of\nthe country. The court has put the actual figure at 5,133 out 22,036 sanctioned\nposts. There are&nbsp;more than 5,000 vacancies&nbsp;in the subordinate courts.\nThe State-wise figures are quite alarming, with Uttar Pradesh having a vacancy\nof 42.18% and Bihar 37.23%. Among the smaller States, Meghalaya has a vacancy\nlevel of 59.79%.<\/li><li><strong>Judges\nto population ratio:<\/strong> India has 19 judges per 10 lakh people\non an average, according to a Law Ministry data which also states that the\njudiciary faces a combined shortage of over 6,000 judges, including over 5,000\nin the lower courts itself.<\/li><li>Absence of complete and scientific\napproach to data collection.<\/li><li>There is no exceptional methodology set\nout for the working of these courts to be pursued to guarantee a speedy\ntrial.&nbsp;<\/li><li>FTC staffs are not given training\nexclusive to cases and offenses that they will handle while working in such\ncourts.&nbsp;<\/li><li><strong>Shortage\nof funds: <\/strong>There\nis additionally an absence of enough funds being given to FTCs to choose and\nappoint adequate staff and to have advanced infrastructure like computer\nsystems, sound video recording arrangements, cooling equipment such as air\nconditioners etc.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Addressing the systematic issues:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Increasing\nthe number of judges: <\/strong>Law Commission in 1987&nbsp;had\nrecommended that&nbsp;India should raise the number of judges to 50 for every\nmillion population.<\/li><li><strong>Filling\nup of the vacancies:<\/strong> the administrative hurdles and the\nunwillingness of the state governments is the cause of increase in vacancies.\nThe respective state governments must work towards reducing the vacancies.<\/li><li><strong>Rationalisation\nof judicial structures:<\/strong> Fast-track courts and special courts\nare administered under different judicial bodies, with little coordination or\nuniformity among them. Therefore, a lead agency to be established by Central\nand State Governments to review the functioning of courts in a systematic and\nstreamlined manner.<\/li><li><strong>Capacity\nbuilding and improving infrastructure: <\/strong>The training of\nstaff as per the demand of FTC is need of the hour. The FTCs must be provided\nwith the adequate infrastructure to provide justice in a fair way and reduce\nthe pendency of cases.<\/li><li><strong>A\nholistic approach<\/strong>&nbsp;of fast tracking the investigation\nto complement the Fast track courts (FTCs) and providing a special procedure\ndifferent from the procedure followed in the regular courts is required.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong>:\nIncreasing the number of courts as a recourse to deal with the mounting backlog\nhas been a common practice. However, while large sums of money and attention\nare being devoted to creating additional posts, little is being done to\nidentify and address the prevalent systemic issues. Without fully optimising\nthe current mechanisms and resolving the problems, sanctioning more judges may\nnot provide the intended results.Critical issues such as inadequate court\nstaff, improper physical and IT infrastructure and understaffed forensic labs,\nwhich affect the day-to-day functioning of the FTCs, must be comprehensively\naddressed. For the overall system to work productively, it is important to\nensure that its various components work efficiently and without any hindrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source:\n<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/the-hard-realities-of-indias-fast-track-courts\/article28838795.ece\">https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/the-hard-realities-of-indias-fast-track-courts\/article28838795.ece<\/a><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: Fast track courts and the issues with these courts. More in News: Minister for Women and Child Development, informed the Rajya Sabha that the government has proposed to set up 1,023 fast-track courts to clear the cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.&nbsp; The Supreme Court in a suo motu&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-the-hard-realities-of-indias-fast-track-courts-7th-august-2019\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">7 PM | The hard realities of India\u2019s fast-track courts | 7th August, 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-pm","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/7-PM.png?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1702969532},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}