733 Fast Track Special Courts including 413 exclusive POCSO Courts operationalized in 28 States/UTs
The Minister of Law and Justice, Shri Kiren Rijiju in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today informed that setting up of Fast Track Courts (FTCs) and its functioning comes within the domain of the State Governments who set up such courts as per their need and resources, in consultation with the respective High Courts. As per information provided by the High Courts, 242 more FTCs have been setup up after 2017 (596 FTCs were existing as on 31.12.2017 which has increased to 838 FTCs as on 31.10.2022).
The Union Government has started a Centrally Sponsored Scheme in October, 2019 for setting up of 1023 Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) including 389 exclusive POCSO Courts in 31 States/UTs for expeditious trial and disposal of cases related to rape and POCSO Act, in pursuance to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2018 and the direction of Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in Suo Moto 1/2019 dated 25.7.2019. Initially, the Scheme was for 1 year which has now been continued up to 31.03.2023. As per information received from the High Courts,733 FTSCs including 413 exclusive POCSO Courts are operationalized in 28 States/UTs which have disposed a total of more than 1,24,000 cases since inception of the scheme and 1,93,814 cases are pending as on 31.10.2022.
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RKM