Visakhapatnam: Fast track courts (FTCs) in Andhra Pradesh were set up with the intention of having them deliver results speedily, but a majority of them have been functioning without judges, and petitioners are legitimately disgruntled.
AP has 34 FTCs, but legal experts are now questioning their efficacy, with over 17,000 cases pending as of April 2014, according to the ministry of law and justice.
In Vizag city alone, over 1,600 cases are pending in six FTCs and over 500 cases have been pending in subordinate courts as on April 30, 2016. The FTCs disposed of a total of 2,48,457 cases.
Senior advocate and president of the Forum of Legal Professionals K. Muralidhar pointed out that more than FTCs, more regular courts needed to be set up. “Courts can’t be fast-tracked, but the system needs to be fast-tracked for speedy trials to take place by strengthening it with the appointment of more judges and judicial staff. Shortage of judges and public prosecutors and heavy workload at the FTCs were the main reasons for the slow pace of trials in them,” he said.
What’s more, judges will be appointed to the FTCs on an ad hoc basic and were unlikely to continue for a length of time. The legal fraternity also pointed out that FTCs in AP, with no special training being given to judges and a shortage of them too, had failed to handle different kinds of cases. Many of them felt that there was an urgent need to set up more FTCs to improve the present scenario.
Sources said that the 14th Finance Commission had endorsed the proposal to strengthen the judicial system in the states, which includes, inter-alia, establishing 1,800 FTCs for a period of five years to handle cases of heinous crime, cases involving senior citizens, women, children and disabled, litigants affected with HIV/ AIDS and other terminal ailments, and civil disputes involving land acquisition and property/rent disputes, pending for more than five years at a cost of Rs 4,144 crore.
The Commission has urged the state government to use the additional fiscal space provided it has provided in the tax devolution to meet such requirements.
