What Are Fast Track Courts in India?

What Are Fast Track Courts in India?

We have heard of the High Court, Supreme Court as well as district courts in India. But via this article we will come to know about another concept of courts.

So what are fast track courts? & what are advantages and disadvantages of fast track courts?

These are special kind of courts which have exclusive jurisdiction over a particular category of law (in this case law- sexual assault and children’s these are the fast track cases(the fast track case law)).

Fast track courts were introduced in India in the year 2000 in order to reduce the burden of fast track cases(the fast track case law) from high courts and district courts and also to provide speedy justice. That was the first fast track court in India.

Approximately three crore case laws were open (pending) in all courts in the country at that time and to help solve those, the 11th finance commission approved the creation of 1734 fast track courts in india for an experimental period of five years.  

For the next five years these fast track courts worked efficiently and closed almost 10 million case laws and so the term kept on renewing till 2012 when the heinous rape case shook the country to its core and that is when the government ordered to set up six fast track courts in Delhi that will only deal with sexual assault these are fast track cases(the fast track case law). So now we understand what fast track courts are.

Objective of Fast Track courts

The main objective of fast track courts in India is to provide speedy justice to a large number of pending cases in a specified time. Judges are appointed on an ad hoc basis and retired judges are eligible for selection.  

Fast track courts in India have turned out to be a good way of dealing with sexual assault and children’s these are the fast track cases(the fast track case law) since they get the full attention of the judiciary which lacked in high courts and district courts due to abundance of pending cases.

advantages and disadvantages of fast track courts?In a generation where technological advancements are taking place and increasing day by day and the nature of crimes is also changing and becoming critical; the judiciary cannot afford to lag behind, it has to keep up with the changing times in order to render speedy justice.

Need for Fast Track courts

1. Aimed at clearing the considerable amount of pending cases: The main motive behind the establishment of fast track courts was to solve the enormous amount of pending cases and to reduce some burden off district and high courts. Another motive was to give proper attention and time to sexual assault are fast track cases(the fast track case law).

2. Expected to reduce the number of undertrials in jails: India has one of the largest number of people (approximately 2.8 lakhs) in prison awaiting their trial or going through their trials and this number keeps increasing everyday as new case laws emerge and new accused are imprisoned. To reduce this number fast track courts are needed in the country. 

3. Need for Speedy Trial: In a country where thousands of crimes take place every day it is very important to provide speedy trial and justice. Speedy trial, also being a constitutional right, has yet to see its goals achieved and for the same, fast track courts are required. 

4. Judiciary’s commitment to end sexual and gender based violence: Fast track courts work to provide speedy and accurate justice to gender and sexual violence victims. It proves that the judiciary is committed towards ending sexual and gender based violence.

Advantages of Fast Track courts

1. Lessening of the general caseload burden: The objective with which the fast track courts were established has been very beneficial for judiciary as it has solved over a million case laws and has reduced the case load from other courts.

2. Promotes specialization and professionalization: It has helped employ thousands of people from different fields, it also avails retired judges from high courts and district courts. The establishment of fast track courts has promoted the specialization of a category of law.

3. Improves judicial efficiency and effectiveness: By the proper use of judiciary and by speedy trial and judgment, fast track courts boost the efficiency of the judiciary.

4. High case clearance rate and speedy trial rate: Fast Track courts in India have the highest case disposal rate due to its speedy trial and judgment. And hence it is efficient in solving case laws in a bound time.

5. Guarantees consistency and predictability: Fast track courts have high performance rate and are stable and steady. It renders justice with high accuracy.

Disadvantages of Fast Track Courts 

1. Fast track courts do not do full justice in some - fast track cases(the fast track case law): Courts take time to render justice because they examine each and every aspect thoroughly. But in fast track courts some case laws are disposed of without proper examination of evidence and many people are wrongly convicted in the name of speedy trial.

2. Tampered subject matter and lowers professionalism of Judges: Since fast track courts deal with only one category of law it lowers the ability of judges to deal with other case laws coming under different laws.

Conclusion

People are now aware of the Benefits of fast track courts in India . Just like all other things, There are both advantages and disadvantages of fast track courts in society. But fast track courts have proved out to be very beneficial and have helped solve millions of cases(the fast track cases-the fast track case law). In a time like this, India needs fast track courts in order to curb sexual and gender violence. So you can know from the advantages and disadvantages of fast track courts the advantages are more of.