The Union Cabinet Sanctioned Appointment of 2000 Judges for the Fast-Track Courts

The Union Cabinet, in its letter sent on 9 January 2013, to the high courts as well as the state governments asked them to enhance strength of the subordinate judiciary from 18000 at present to 20000. The Law Ministry approved 80 crore Rupees for recruiting these 2000 additional judges in the country for the fast track courts.

The Law Ministry asked for an approval from the cabinet in the last week of December 2012 which was granted to it. This happened in light of the gang rape of the 23-year-old Para-medical student on 16 December 2012, after which lawyers, officials as well as jurists discussed how long trials put the victims at a disadvantage.

The government additionally was also working upon the proposals to enable states for using the funds which were available for morning as well as evening courts, in order to increase the number of fast track courts even more.

The morning as well as evening courts were set up by the law ministry in 2010. However, the scheme was not successful because only a few states availed it, which resulted in unused funds. The government now proposed to divert these funds for setting up the fast track courts.

Inspite of all such efforts, there are over 3.20 crore cases pending in the various courts of the country. Out of these, a total of 2.76 crore cases were pending in the subordinate courts and 44 lakh were pending in the high courts, as per the Law Ministry.