52% of rape, Pocso cases cleared but pendency at FTCs already 2L | India News
NEW DELHI: Even though the fast-track special courts set up by govt on the Supreme Court‘s directions for expediting trial have disposed of 52% (2,14,463) out of 4,16,638 rape and Pocso cases since the initiation of the FTSC scheme in Oct 2019 till the end of last year, a backlog of over two lakh cases remains.
The existing FTSCs will need to dispose of nearly 554 cases every day – that’s one case every three minutes – to clear the backlog as of Dec 2023 within one year.As of Aug 2024, 755 FTSCs including 410 exclusive Pocso courts, are functional out of the 1,023 earmarked courts under the scheme.
The findings are part of the ‘Fast Tracking Justice‘ report that looks at the role of FTSCs in reducing case backlogs.
The report states that at the current disposal rate of 76,319 cases in FTSCs per year, India would need approximately three years to clear the existing backlog if no new cases are added. “These estimated years can go on an infinity if new rape and Pocso cases are added to the existing fast-track courts and no new courts of this category are set up,” the report brought out by non-profit ‘India Child Protection‘ says. It calls for making the remaining 268 FTSCs functional under the scheme and setting up at least 1,000 more to deliver within the timelines wherein trial in rape cases need to be completed within two months after filing of chargesheet and within one year in Pocso cases.
The report says the number of cases for trial before FTSCs each year has also risen – from 1,95,991 in 2020 to 2,78,494 in 2023 – reflecting both addition of new cases and continuing challenge of managing pending caseloads. “Correspondingly, the number of cases disposed by FTSCs each year has seen significant improvement, with 37,148 cases disposed in 2020, rising to 76,319 in 2023. Also the percentage of cases disposed during the year out of the total cases for trial (pending and new) has also shown an increase, rising from 19% in 2020 to 27% in 2023,” the report says.
Asserting the need to deal with pending cases, the report also assesses year-wise data of the number of new cases instituted and cases disposed in that year to compare what would be the status of disposal if there were no pending cases and the data represented only disposal for that year itself. For instance in 2023, 81,471 new rape and Pocso cases were instituted, while 76,319 cases were disposed by FTSCs, which comes to a disposal rate of 94%.
“While all of the number of disposed cases may not be the same that came to FTSCs that year itself, this data indicates that India is close to reaching the tipping point to justice, a point when the number of cases disposed in a given year is equal to or greater than the number of new cases instituted during the same year. In this backdrop this report calls for expediting disposal of pending cases by creating 1,000 new FTSCs so that India is able to build on the momentum seen in terms of disposal rate,” said Bhuwan Ribhu, child rights activist and founder of India Child Protection.
Stating that there is no real-time data available on acquittal and conviction in rape and Pocso cases, the report calls for provided this data on the FTSC dashboard to enable assessment of the success of the courts.
The existing FTSCs will need to dispose of nearly 554 cases every day – that’s one case every three minutes – to clear the backlog as of Dec 2023 within one year.As of Aug 2024, 755 FTSCs including 410 exclusive Pocso courts, are functional out of the 1,023 earmarked courts under the scheme.
The findings are part of the ‘Fast Tracking Justice‘ report that looks at the role of FTSCs in reducing case backlogs.
The report states that at the current disposal rate of 76,319 cases in FTSCs per year, India would need approximately three years to clear the existing backlog if no new cases are added. “These estimated years can go on an infinity if new rape and Pocso cases are added to the existing fast-track courts and no new courts of this category are set up,” the report brought out by non-profit ‘India Child Protection‘ says. It calls for making the remaining 268 FTSCs functional under the scheme and setting up at least 1,000 more to deliver within the timelines wherein trial in rape cases need to be completed within two months after filing of chargesheet and within one year in Pocso cases.
The report says the number of cases for trial before FTSCs each year has also risen – from 1,95,991 in 2020 to 2,78,494 in 2023 – reflecting both addition of new cases and continuing challenge of managing pending caseloads. “Correspondingly, the number of cases disposed by FTSCs each year has seen significant improvement, with 37,148 cases disposed in 2020, rising to 76,319 in 2023. Also the percentage of cases disposed during the year out of the total cases for trial (pending and new) has also shown an increase, rising from 19% in 2020 to 27% in 2023,” the report says.
Asserting the need to deal with pending cases, the report also assesses year-wise data of the number of new cases instituted and cases disposed in that year to compare what would be the status of disposal if there were no pending cases and the data represented only disposal for that year itself. For instance in 2023, 81,471 new rape and Pocso cases were instituted, while 76,319 cases were disposed by FTSCs, which comes to a disposal rate of 94%.
“While all of the number of disposed cases may not be the same that came to FTSCs that year itself, this data indicates that India is close to reaching the tipping point to justice, a point when the number of cases disposed in a given year is equal to or greater than the number of new cases instituted during the same year. In this backdrop this report calls for expediting disposal of pending cases by creating 1,000 new FTSCs so that India is able to build on the momentum seen in terms of disposal rate,” said Bhuwan Ribhu, child rights activist and founder of India Child Protection.
Stating that there is no real-time data available on acquittal and conviction in rape and Pocso cases, the report calls for provided this data on the FTSC dashboard to enable assessment of the success of the courts.
