It is seven years since a case was filed in the Madras High Court for establishing special courts for the exclusive trial of cases booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989, in 16 sensitive districts in the State and four years since the court passed favourable orders. Yet, only one court has been established so far.
Though the 16 courts were planned to be established in four phases beginning from 2016-17, the irony remains that even the first phase was yet to be completed. Of the four courts planned in that phase, a special court had come up at Srivilliputtur only on April 24 this year and the rest at Dindigul, Ramanathapuram and Pudukottai were yet to become functional.
A Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad was informed by the Registrar General (R-G) of the High Court recently that the courts at the three districts could not be inaugurated for want of ‘readiness report’ from the Principal District Judges concerned. After recording the submission, the judges directed him to expedite the process.
It was in 2012 that A. Narayanan of Change India, a non governmental organisation, filed a public interest litigation petition in the High Court for establishing special courts in all “atrocity prone” districts.
Then it was brought to the notice of the court that such courts had been established only in Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Villupuram and Sivaganga.
Disposing of the case on June 10, 2015, a Bench comprising the then Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul (now a Supreme Court judge) and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam recorded the willingness of the State government to establish special courts in other districts too on the basis of a proposal to be submitted by the R-G after ascertaining number of pending cases.
Accordingly, the R-G submitted a proposal to the government on October 1, 2015 for establishing 16 courts in Dindigul, Ramanathapuram, Srivilliputtur, Pudukottai, Kancheepuram, Perambalur, Theni, Tiruppur, Tiruvannamalai, Theni, Vellore, Tiruvarur, Thoothukudi, Kanniyakumari, Coimbatore and Namakkal at an expenditure of ₹22.07 crore.
The government accepted the proposal on April 6, 2017 but accorded administrative sanction only for ₹12.88 crore as against ₹22.07 crore sought by the High Court. It was further decided to establish the 16 courts in four phases beginning from 2016-17 and financial sanction was also accorded for ₹3.22 crore for establishing four courts in the first phase.
As per plan every special court would be headed by a District Judge and assisted by 13 employees including sheristadar, head clerk, masalchi, typist and watchman. It was made clear that those courts would be accommodated in private rented buildings and the rent would be fixed by the Public Works Department as per orders in force.
Financial approval was also granted for purchase of cars for every special court at a cost of ₹8.5 lakh and furniture at a cost of ₹2 lakh. A similar approval was granted even for the second phase on October 3, 2018. Yet, the process of making the special courts functional was getting delayed and it forced Mr. Narayanan to file yet another case this year.
A Division Bench led by Justice Manikumar called for a report from the R-G to know the current status and disposed of the case with a direction to expedite the process.