WCD to expedite establishment of fast-track courts to reduce pendency of rape cases

The Ministry of Women and Child Development will be expediting the establishment of dedicated fast-track courts to try pending cases of rape of children and women, and 18 states are on board with its proposal, a ministry spokesperson said.

The WCD Ministry has decided to use the Nirbhaya Fund to set up 1,023 dedicated fast-track courts to dispose of pending cases of rape of children and women, she said.

The project has a total financial implication of Rs 767.25 crore, of which Rs 474 crore would be utilised from the Nirbhaya fund. The rest of the money would be given by the respective states.

At present, there are 664 dedicated special fast-track courts and 2,021 public prosecutors associated with these, according to official figures.

The establishment of courts would be finished within a year and priority would be given to reducing the pendency of cases of rape of children and women.

She said 18 courts have decided to come on board for forming dedicated fast-track courts for this purpose.

The states are Maharashtra, Tripura, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Haryana.

"The insistence would be to finish the pendency of cases as soon as possible. These will be dedicated courts and an amount of Rs 75 lakh would be used in establishment of each court," she said.

The spokesperson said quarterly monitoring of the matter would be done by the Law Ministry.