The state government has extended the March 2013, deadline to abolish Fast Track Courts (FTCs) by three months, reportedly to ensure that the ad hoc judges and staff attached to these courts are accommodated elsewhere.
As a result, 54 FTCs, including four of Bangalore urban and rural divisions and 11 of Mysore division, will continue till June 30.
On December 28 last year, the government had passed an order abolishing 54 of the 93 FTCs in the first phased manner throughout the state by the end of March. The remaining 39 FTCs had to be abolished in 2015.
Sources in the judiciary said that the government had taken a decision to continue FTCs, until the replacement postings for the ad hoc judges are found.
To ensure this, FTCs in places like Mysore, Madikeri and Srirangapatna have been converted into additional courts and the remaining ad hoc judges should be given new postings.
“If government wants to abolish FTCs, it should retain the ad hoc judges as per the observations of the Supreme Court. The High Court has to take a final call to consider the promotions of ad hoc judges to regular district judges after checking their track records and verifying their service register, cadre and recruitment rules and also look into the judgments given by them. Once they complete the process, FTCs will come to an end. Therefore FTCs are being continued for three months,” a judicial official said.
To reduce the pendency of cases, the Centre had established the FTCs a few years ago. Following a decline in pendency, in the 13th Finance Commission it was decided to stop funding the state government to run FTCs. In view of abolishing the FTCs, the district courts transferred the civil and criminal cases pending in the FTCs to the principal and additional district and sessions courts.