The Hindu : Five more fast track courts to be set up this month

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 02, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

Five more fast track courts to be set up this month

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI May 1. With the five more fast track courts expected to be operational within a month, the State will have as many as 27 such courts.

The courts to be set up are in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam (two each) and in Alappuzha.

A committee of High Court judges had earlier suggested 27 fast track courts (additional sessions courts) for the State, two each in 13 districts and one in Wayanad. The Government had accorded administrative sanction and special sanction in January, 2001 for the construction of buildings for these courts.

The fast track courts deal with criminal cases involving undertrials. The courts are being established under the Central Government's initiative. According to figures, over 1.80 lakh undertrials are languishing in various jails in the country in the absence of quick trial, majority of them facing charges of petty or minor offences. The fast track courts are expected to substantially reduce the number of undertrials, whittling down the expenditure on jails. The State Governments are spending over Rs. 361 crores a year on the imprisoned undertrials.

According to the Central Government scheme under which the courts are being set up, the State Governments would have to build the court premises and pay the salaries of judges and staff from the Central grant and the High Courts would select the presiding officers and oversee their functioning. When the scheme came into force on April 1, 2001, around 400 of the 1,734 fast track courts were set up in different parts of the country. The Centre has so far released Rs. 318.57 crores to the States. In fact, Rs. 502.90 crores had originally been earmarked for setting up the courts over a period of five years under the award of the Tenth Finance Commission. As per the Centre Government action plan, the fast track courts are bound to dispose of 14 sessions trial cases and/or 20 to 25 criminal/civil cases every month.

But the setting up of fast tracks courts has not been without controversies, the validity of the constitution of fast track courts having been questioned by the Andhra Pradesh Bar Council. It has taken umbrage at the Finance Commission's observation that the expenditure on undertrials would come down as the fast track courts speed up the disposal of their cases. The Bar Council has argued that a court is meant only to administer justice and not to reduce jail expenditure. It also has taken objection to the appointment of presiding officers from among retired judges on two-year contracts. However, the stay by the Andhra Pradesh High Court on fast track courts has been vacated by the Supreme Court.

Of the 1,734 fast track courts proposed to be set up, as many as 1,275 have so far been notified. Of these, 980 courts have become functional. These courts have disposed of more than 77,000 criminal cases at the sessions court level, out of 1,82,271 criminal cases transferred.

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