Over 6 lakh cases pending in Fast Track Courts in the country

The people expect the Government to take serious cognizance of the situation and urgent steps to speedily clear off the cases.

If this situation exists in the Fast Track Courts, which were set up to avoid delay in imparting justice, who will the people look to for getting speedy justice ?

New Delhi – Around 6 lakh cases are pending in the Fast Track Courts across the country, Parliament was recently informed. Uttar Pradesh is the worst performer among all the States with a whopping 4.25 lakh cases pending in 206 functional Fast Track Courts in the State as of 31^st May 2019. The Fast Track Courts in UP disposed off over 4.5 lakh cases in 2017 and 2018.

The information was shared by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

Next in line is Maharashtra where as many as 79,436 cases were pending in 77 Fast Track Courts as of 31^st March this year. While the Centre has proposed setting up 212 Fast Track Courts in UP, Maharashtra along with the Union Territory of Daman and Diu are also in line to get more than 200 Fast Track Courts for five years.

Bengal and Andaman & Nicobar Islands have around 45,000 pending cases, Bihar has 20,092, Delhi 4,363, and Andhra Pradesh has over 5,000 cases pending in Fast Track Courts. Sikkim, with just 11 pending cases in the Fast Track Courts, is at the bottom of the list.

Overall, the Centre has proposed the establishment of 1,800 Fast Track Courts for a period of five years from 2015 to 2020. The 14^th Finance Commission has endorsed the Centre’s proposal of allocating funds to the tune of Rs 4,144.11 crore to the States to strengthen the judicial system in the States. At present, the country has 581 Fast Track Courts.

Setting up of subordinate Courts including the Fast Track Courts (FTCs) comes under the domain of the respective State Governments. The State sets up such Courts in consultation with the respective High Court. The Fast Track Courts are special Courts, tasked with ensuring speedy trial and reduce net pendency of cases.