Hyderabad, April 01 The 108 fast-track courts in the State, for which Central sponsorship ended on Thursday, will continue their work for another year with the State government deciding to bear their expenditure with its own funds.
These courts were established in 2001 in line with a national policy for a period of five years, initially, to reduce the pendency of cases and provide relief to the litigant public, with the Centre bearing 70 per cent of their expenditure and 30 per cent being met by the State.
In 2006, their continuance was extended by another five years till March 31, 2011.
The decision to continue the working of these courts for one more year was taken by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy in consultation with the Law and Courts Minister E. Pratap Reddy, as 9,63,190 cases were still pending in the district, senior civil judge and junior civil judge courts as on December 31 last.
The Chief Minister agreed to provide the necessary budget of Rs. 15 crore towards continuance of these courts for one more year.
The fast-track courts had disposed of 1,94,072 of the 2,29,623 cases listed as pending when they were set up. Mr. Pratap Reddy told reporters here on Thursday that the pendency of cases, however, had gone up despite the “phenomenal success” of the fast-track courts, due to enactment of new legislations and increase in the number of money/partition suits.
Recruitment of judges
He said 35 district junior judges would be recruited, against 69 vacancies in this category.
The State government would establish 140 junior civil judge courts and 116 magistrate courts, using 13 {+t} {+h} Finance Commission funds. They would start functioning from next month.
–Agencies