Delhi HC directs Delhi Government to grant sanction to establish 18 fast track courts

The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi Government to immediately grant appropriate sanction to establish 18 fast track courts to deal with serious offences..The Court has directed the Delhi Government to also process its demand to establish 22 commercial courts in various Districts in Delhi..The order was passed by a Division Judge Bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Anup J Bhambhani in a plea seeking a direction to the Delhi Government to make Fast Track Courts a permanent feature..The public interest litigation filed through Advocate Sumit Chander had contended that the Delhi Government had failed to discharge its constitutional obligation to provide speedy justice by failing to create Fast Track Courts on a permanent basis..The petitioner, Parag Chawla also brought on record letters written by the High Court to the Delhi Government, requesting it to make the FTC scheme a permanent feature by establishing such courts. Subsequently, ad-hoc fast track courts were sanctioned by the Delhi Government on a yearly basis..While passing the order, the Court observed that currently over 6000 cases were pending under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and over 2000 cases were pending under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code. With the current number of courts, it was “humanly impossible” to deal with and dispose of such a large number of cases in terms of Section 309 CrPC, the Court further observed..Further referring to its continued demands to the Delhi Government to establish fast track courts and commercial courts for enhanced disposal rate, the Court remarked,.“..once the High Court has sought for certain courts for speedy disposal of cases, the State Government cannot sit on it and has no option but to sanction the posts as demanded by the High Court…the State is bound to create commercial courts in an endeavour to dispose of commercial disputes..Once the High Court has made a demand, the State is duty bound to sanction the posts..“.The Court has now directed that all the records pertaining to the pending demands for fast track courts and commercial courts be placed before the Delhi Government’s cabinet. It has also directed the Registrar General to “personally” provide all requisite information/details that are sought by the Delhi Government for the process..As per the Court’s direction, a Report shall be submitted on the status of establishment of these Courts on or before May 30..The Petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan..Delhi Government was represented by Advocate Anupam Srivastava..The case would be heard next on May 30..Read the order:.Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.