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SC extends life of fast track courts for a month
TIMES NEWS NETWORK 31 Mar 05
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the wisdom behind the
Centre’s decision to wind up at least 1,734 fast track (FTC) courts by March
31 for want of funds, and extended their life for a month — till April 30,
2005.
“Look at the chaos that would result from the winding up of the FTCs; the
cases have to be reheard, the judges have to be readjusted and a long delay in
the adjudication of the cases,’’ a Bench of Justices S B Sinha and S H
Kapadia said while taking a serious view of the non-allocation of funds by the
12th Finance Commission for continuance of the FTCs.
The 11th Finance Commission had given a grant of Rs 509 crore for setting up of
the 1,734 FTCs, which were to continue till March 31, 2005.
When the Bench indicated that it would ask the Centre not to disturb the FTCs,
an additional adjudication forum created by the then Union law minister Arun
Jaitley to speedily clear the huge backlog of cases, solicitor-general Goolam E
Vahanvati said the matter be left to the government, which had the prerogative
of making budgetary provisions.
The Bench said: “The apex court has been monitoring the functioning of the
FTCs as the Centre has repeatedly assured it that not only the existing FTCs
would be continued for another five years, but efforts would be made to
establish additional FTCs.
“We are anxious that the FTCs should continue as the consequences of winding
them up are grave,’’ the Bench observed.
TOI had on Tuesday quoted Union law minister H R Bhardwaj as saying that the
Centre did not have the funds to run FTCs beyond March 31. The minister had also
found fault with the way funding of these courts was conceived during NDA rule.
On Wednesday, Vahanvati said Bhardwaj was personally in favour of the FTCs
continuing. But despite a presentation made by the law ministry before the 12th
Finance Commission, no recommendation was made for allocation of funds for the
continuance of these courts.
The Bench wanted to know whether the matter was included in the reference made
by the Union government to the Finance Commission.
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