Ggm fast track courts for rape crimes still not operational

Gurugram: A spate of incidents involving gang rapes and grisly murders rocked the state of Haryana in January 2018. Following these incidents, a cabinet meeting presided by the Chief Minister announced that not only there will be a death penalty for those who rape and murder the minors but also there will the creation of fast track courts for faster dispensation for justice.

Gurugram which as per the state home, ministry report leads in Haryana as far as rape cases are concerned does not have the fast track courts to deal with such cases to date.

It is important to note that there is a special court that has been constituted to deal with crimes against the women which is been presided by Additional District and Sessions Judge. However a large number of cases in these courts are not serving the required purpose and the process of delivering justice to the victim continues to be long and slow.

According to sources a normal case where there are pieces of evidence also take around a minimum of two to three years to complete. Creation of fast track courts for crimes against women and minors was one of the important promises made by various political parties in their manifesto for Gurgram in the recently concluded Assembly elections.

There are around 1,700 cases of crimes against women in Gurugram city itself that comes every year to the district courts. The figures only increase when the cases of Pataudi and Sohna are added.

At present there are 47 courtrooms in Gurugram that are handling over 1.5 lakh cases. Presently these cases are being handled by 22 junior judges, 11 additional district and sessions judge besides this there are four judges deployed for labour and family courts.

For long, there is a demand for increasing the number of judges that are still less as compared to the number of cases being heard. According to sources, a district court judge on an average hears more than three to four cases in a day.

What is adding to more difficulties is a large number of cases associated with juvenile crimes being transferred from juvenile justice board to district courts. Besides setting up the tower of justice that will incorporate more courtrooms there are also, other initiatives that are being planned to reduce the number of cases at the city local courts.