The Hindu : Speeding up trials

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Tuesday, Jul 22, 2003

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Speeding up trials

By Surendra Nath

Fast track courts have considerably reduced the backing of sessions cases in the States that have done the most to set them up.

FAST TRACK courts are additional sessions courts set up for speeding up the trial of long-pending cases, particularly those involving undertrials. Over two crore cases are pending in about 13,000 district subordinate courts. About two-thirds of these are criminal cases. And about a million are sessions cases which involve heinous offences such as murder, rape, dacoity, etc. About 30 per cent of sessions cases (3,00,000) have been pending for three years or more. When trial gets delayed, witnesses lose interest. They often get coerced and justice becomes a casualty. When criminals are not brought to book either because of botched-up investigations or delayed trials, the deterrent effect of law is eroded. The conviction rate in offences under the Indian Penal Code fell from 65 per cent in the 1970s to about 40 per cent in 2000.

Under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, administration of justice has been a concurrent responsibility of the Centre and the State Governments since 1977. The Centre's Plan investment in Justice started in the Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-97) in compliance with a Supreme Court direction of 1993-94. During the Eighth Plan, the Centre spent about Rs. 110 crores on improving judicial infrastructure, such as constructing court rooms. An equal amount was spent by the States. In the Ninth Plan, Rs. 385 crores were spent by the Centre, and the States made a matching contribution. This was 0.071 per cent of the Centre's Ninth Plan expenditure of Rs. 5,41,207 crores. During the Tenth Plan (2002-07), the allocation for Justice is Rs. 700 crores, which is 0.078 per cent of the total Plan outlay of Rs. 8,93,183 crores.

The main reason for delay in administering justice is that the courts have to deal with more cases than their capacity. There are hundreds of magistrates and judges, particularly in bigger cities, who are dealing with 5,000 to 10,000 cases each. They have no option but to give frequent adjournments. For expeditious trial of cases, it is necessary to have more courts.

As adequate Plan investment in Justice was not forthcoming, in April 2000 the Department approached the Eleventh Finance Commission for non-Plan assistance to set up additional courts for expediting the trial of long-pending sessions cases. A meeting was convened, at the instance of the Department of Justice on April 4, 2000, with the full Finance Commission and the Law Secretaries of major States. It was proposed that the State Governments respond to the suggestion of creating temporary additional posts of judges to clear the backlog. The suggestion was approved and a grant of Rs. 502.9 crores was recommended by the Finance Commission under Article 275 of the Constitution to set up 1,734 additional courts, which came to be known as fast track courts. These courts are to continue till 2005.

The grant covers the entire functioning of fast track courts. As construction of courts, appointment of judges and supporting staff take some time, the States have so far notified only 1,366 courts.

These courts have been assigned 3,14,777 cases, which is roughly the number of sessions cases pending for three years or more. By June 2003, fast track courts had disposed of 1,60,487 cases — more than half of the total number of cases transferred to them. So far, the Central Government has released about Rs. 360 crores.

States such as Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have achieved notable success in implementing this scheme. Maharashtra has disposed of 20,541 cases out of the 30,714 cases transferred to its fast track courts. And Tamil Nadu has disposed of 34,989 cases out of 56,088 cases. Thus, fast track courts have considerably reduced the backlog of sessions cases in the States that have done the most to set them up. They have also had a salutary effect on conviction rates.

As grants under Article 275 of the Constitution are a devolution to the States, the Union Territories were left out. The Delhi High Court proposed setting up of fast track courts in Delhi and so did the Union Territory of Chandigarh. The Justice Department took up the matter with the Union Finance Ministry. Funds were provided in the first quarter of the current financial year for setting up fast track courts in Delhi. The Government spends over Rs. 55 a day per undertrial. There are more than 2 lakh prison inmates, of whom about 75 per cent are undertrials. The Government is thus spending about Rs. 301 crores annually on their maintenance. Expenditure is also being incurred on their transportation to courts and their security. The money for setting up fast track courts can thus be substantially met from the savings in prison expenditure due to faster trial.

About 1.6 crore criminal cases are pending in district/subordinate courts, of which only a million are sessions cases. The rest can be tried by magistrates. As fast track courts address the problem of only sessions cases, the Department of Justice approached the Twelfth Finance Commission in March this year with a proposal to set up fast track magisterial courts. If the proposal gets through, expeditious delivery of justice may be around the corner.

(The writer is Adviser, Union Planning Commission.)

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