The introduction of fast- track courts in 2000 to accelerate the delivery of justice and reduce pendency in courts has not been of much help.
According to various lawyers and judges, these courts are facing a severe problem as the number of judges is very less as required.
The lawyers and the judges handling cases are over burdened. After the Nirbhaya gangrape case and the implementation of Justice JS Verma Committee report, the fast-track courts were expected to work more quickly. But, this didn’t happen. Reason being the judges handling too many cases and it impacts the prosecution lawyers too.
According to Atul Kumar Sharma, a lawyer, the pendency has not improved but the cases which were earlier taking four to five years to get resolved are now taking six months or one year. Secondly, other than the fast-track courts, the lawyers and the judges have other works too.
He further said the date as per the requirement of the witness is also an issue as not all of them together are able to attend the court proceedings on time. The accused also keep adding alibis in order to keep the case delayed.
In a lot of cases, the culprits keep moving the application of being juvenile. In the Gudiya gangrape case in 2012 where a 5-year-old was raped, the culprit has moved an application saying that he was a juvenile at the time of committing the crime.
Similarly, a 24-year-old girl was raped in 2009 where the accused moved the application of being a juvenile. The case has been going on for six years and justice is still awaited.
Nirbhaya rape case didn’t take much time as it was in the media glare, same was the situation with Gudiya rape case but a lot of other case are still in the loops and need to be resolved soon.
There needs to be a time bound case proceeding so that cases don’t get6 delayed, says Sandeep Sharma, a practicing lawyer. He said if the complainant turns out to be filing a false case then tough action should be taken against him.
According to Amit Khemka, Senior High Court lawyer, the case like Uber rape case and others, its justice and other pending case are not being looked after carefully by these fast track courts. There should not be pick and choose, he added.