Plea to make fast-track courts permanent

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought the Delhi government’s response on a plea to make fast-track courts permanent at the district level in compliance with earlier orders of the Supreme Court.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice A J Bhambhani issued notices to the Delhi government and the registrar general of the high court, seeking their stand on the plea.

According to contents of the public interest litigation filed through advocate Sumit Chander, the registrar general of had made representations to authorities to make fast-track courts a permanent feature by sanctioning more posts of judges and ancillary staff, but to date no action has been taken.

The PIL said fast-track courts at the level of additional district or session judges were being run on an ad-hoc or temporary basis and the Supreme Court in 2012 had directed they be either discontinued or made permanent.

The plea said that after the apex court’s decision, the high court had sent a letter in July 2012 to the Delhi government, requesting it to continue the fast-track courts permanent.

“Thereafter, in 2013, the high court had again written to the Delhi government to expedite the setting up of permanent FTCs and to sanction 20 posts of additional district and sessions judges along with 95 posts of ancillary staff,” the petition said.

The plea claimed the government sanctioned the fast-track courts only for one more year. This sanction was given year after year whenever a letter was sent by the high court to make it permanent.

“However, no such court (FTC) has become functional against this sanction as no appointment to such courts can be made on an ad-hoc basis,” it said adding there is a shortage of over 200 judges in the lower judiciary, resulting in an increase in pendency of cases. The matter would be now heard on May 16.

First Published: Apr 17, 2019 07:23 IST