BRIEF NOTE ON THE SCHEME FAST TRACK COURTS

The eleventh Finance Commission recommended a scheme for creation of 1734 Fast Track Courts in the country for disposal of long pending Sessions and other cases. The Ministry of Finance sanctioned an amount of Rs. 502.90 crores as special problem and upgradation grant for judicial administration. The scheme was for a period of 5 years. The Finance Commission Division (FCD), Ministry of Finance released funds directly to the state Governments under the scheme of Fast Track Courts. It is the primary responsibility of the State Governments to establish these courts in consultation with the concerned High Courts.

2.

The FTCs were established to expeditiously dispose of long pending cases in the

Sessions Courts and long pending cases of undertrial prisoners.

3.

The term of scheme on the Fast Track Courts which were recommended by the

Eleventh Finance Commission ended on 31st march, 2005. The Supreme Court, which is monitoring the functioning of Fast Track Courts through the case of Brij Mohan Lal Vs UOI & Ors observed that the scheme of Fast Track Courts should not be disbanded all of a sudden and in its order dated 31st march, 2005, directed the Union of India to continue the Fast Track Courts.

4.

The Government accorded its approval for the continuation of 1562 Fast Track

Courts that were operational as on 31.3.2005 for a further period of 5 years i.e. up to 31st March, 2010 with a provision of Rs. 509 crores as a 100 per cent central assistance. The Department of Justice is monitoring the scheme. These FTCs have disposed of 21.16 lakh cases out of the 28.84 lakh cases transferred to them so far.

5.

This Department has requested State Govts and the High Courts to earmark atleast

one FTC in each District to exclusively deal with cases involving senior civizens, abuse of women and the disabled.

6.

The Central assistance under the above said scheme is limited to an approved

norm i.e. Rs. 4.80 lakh per court per annum (recurring) and Rs. 8.60 lakh (non-recurring). Any expenditure incurred by the State in excess as recurring and /or non-recurring expenditure would have to be borne by the State Government. During the financial year 2005-06, an amount of Rs. 100.00 crore has been released to the States (Annex-I). During the financial year 2006-07, an amount of Rs. 102.93 crore was released to the State Governments (Annex-II). During the year 2007-08, an amount of Rs. 57.20 crore was released (Annex-III).

7.

A statement indicating the number of Fast Track Courts established and the cases

transferred to them and disposed of is attached as Annexure-IV.

Annexure-I Statement showing amount released during 2005-06 under Fast Track Courts (Rs. in lakhs)

Sl. No Name of the state

1 Andhra Pradesh 2 Arunachal Pradesh 3 Assam 4 Bihar 5 Chhattisgarh 6 Goa 7 Gujarat 8 Haryana 9 HP 10 Jharkhand 11 Karnataka 12 Kerala 13 Madhya Pradesh 14 Maharashtra 15 Manipur 16 Meghalaya 17 Mizoram 18 Nagaland 19 Orissa 20 Punjab 21 Rajasthan 22 Tamil Nadu 23 Tripura 24 U.P. 25 Uttarakhand 26 West Bengal Total

Sanctioned Sanctioned under Total sanctioned under recurring non-recurring expenditure expenditure 412.80 137.70 550.50 14.40 4.80 19.20 96.00 32.00 128.00 720.00 240.30 960.30 148.80 49.60 198.40 24.00 8.00 32.00 796.80 266.00 1062.80 76.80 25.60 102.40 43.20 14.40 57.60 427.20 142.60 569.80 446.40 149.00 595.40 148.80 49.60 198.40 316.80 105.70 422.50 897.60 299.60 1197.20 9.60 3.20 12.80 14.40 4.80 19.20 14.40 4.80 19.20 9.60 3.20 12.80 196.80 65.60 262.40 86.40 28.80 115.20 398.40 133.00 531.40 235.20 78.50 313.70 14.40 4.80 19.20 216.00 72.00 288.00 1162.01 387.79 1549.80 571.20 190.60 761.80 7498.01 10000.00 2501.99

Annexure-II Statement showing amount released during 2006-07 under the Fast Track Courts (Rs. in lakhs)
Sl. No Name of the state Sanctioned Sanctioned under Total sanctioned under recurring non-recurring expenditure expenditure 412.80 0 412.80 14.40 0 14.40 96.00 0 96.00 720.00 0 720.00 129.60 0 129.60 24.00 0 24.00 715.20 640.70 1355.90 33.60 0 33.60 43.20 0.37 43.57 226.00 0 226.00 340.80 270.00 610.80 148.80 0 148.80 215.40 0 215.40 801.60 300.00 1101.60 9.60 0 9.60 14.40 0 14.40 14.40 3.28 17.68 9.60 8.58 18.18 196.80 0 196.80 48.00 0 48.00 398.40 355.24 753.64 235.20 0 235.20 3.80 0 3.80 2107.20 968.49 3075.69 216.00 0 216.00 571.20 0 571.20 7746.00 2546.66 10292.66

1 Andhra Pradesh 2 Arunachal Pradesh 3 Assam 4 Bihar 5 Chhattisgarh 6 Goa 7 Gujarat 8 Haryana 9 HP 10 Jharkhand 11 Karnataka 12 Kerala 13 Madhya Pradesh 14 Maharashtra 15 Manipur 16 Meghalaya 17 Mizoram 18 Nagaland 19 Orissa 20 Punjab 21 Rajasthan 22 Tamil Nadu 23 Tripura 24 U.P. 25 Uttarakhand 26 West Bengal Total

Annexure-III

Statement showing amount released during 2007-08 under the Fast Track Courts (Rs. In lakh)
Sl. No Name of the state Sanctioned under recurring expenditure (2007-08) (Rs. in lakhs) 1 Andhra Pradesh 412.80 2 Arunachal Pradesh 14.40 3 Assam 96.00 4 Bihar 720.00 5 Chhattisgarh 129.60 6 Goa 24.00 7 Gujarat 571.20 8 Haryana 67.20 9 HP 0 10 Jharkhand 190.17 11 Karnataka 230.40 12 Kerala 148.80 13 Madhya Pradesh 259.80 14 Maharashtra 782.40 15 Manipur 9.60 16 Meghalaya 0 17 Mizoram 14.40 18 Nagaland 9.60 19 Orissa 158.40 20 Punjab 51.20 21 Rajasthan 398.40 22 Tamil Nadu 235.20 23 Tripura 0 24 U.P. 495.52 25 Uttarakhand 129.60 26 West Bengal 571.20 Total 5719.89 No. of FTCs for which grants sanctioned

86 3 20 150 27 5 119 14 0 48 48 31 66 163 2 0 3 2 33 17 83 49 0 242 36 119 1366

Annexure-IV
STATUS OF FAST TRACK COURTS, MAY 2008

SL.NO.

STATES NO. OF FAST TRAK COURT FUNCTIONAL TOTAL CASES TRANSFERRED SINCE INCEPTION 4 177854 3045 49960 78495 41939 522914 5208 31258 20711 0 74767 120586 77028 188655 408774 2430 849 1491 633 44560 54027 112081 0 334724 4421 72817 346369 108866 2884462

TOTAL CASES DISPOSED SINCE INCEPTION 5 145680 1048 36861 29178 32762 313201 4114 20795 15754 0 61268 97731 63373 143218 276650 2211 498 1080 499 36542 26423 90986 0 301266 4311 67245 266599 76289 2115582

NO. OF CASES PENDING 6 32174 1997 13099 49317 9177 209713 1094 10463 4957 0 13499 22855 13655 45437 132124 219 351 411 134 8018 27604 21095 0 33458 110 5572 79770 32577 0 768880

AS ON

1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

2 ANDHRA PRADESH ARUNACHAL PRAD ASSAM BIHAR CHHATTISGARH GUJARAT GOA HARYANA HIMACHAL PRADESH JAMMU & KASHMIR JHARKHAND KARNATAKA KERELA MADHYA PRADESH MAHARASHTRA MANIPUR MEGHALAYA MIZORAM NAGALAND ORISSA PUNJAB RAJASTHAN SIKKIM TAMIL NADU TRIPURA UTTARAKHAND UTTAR PRADESH WEST BENGAL TOTAL

3 108 3 20 150 31 121 3 14 8 0 49 43 38 65 154 2 3 3 2 32 16 83 0 49 3 10 240 150 1400

7 May.08 May.08 May.08 March.05 March.06 May.08 Aug.07 Apr.08 May.08 Mar.08 Mar.08 May.08 Mar.08 Mar.08 May.08 May.08 Mar.08 May.08 May.08 Apr.08 Apr.08 Dec.07 May.08 May.08 Dec.07 Apr.08