Fast Tracking of Corruption Cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act

The Chief Justice of India had written in December, 2010 to the Chief Justices of High Courts to fast track corruption cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, so that they could be taken up on priority basis both at High Courts and Subordinate Courts. Giving this information in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Shri Salman Khurshid, Minister of Law & Justice, said that the Chief Justice of India has later conveyed on 08.11.2011 that 46,120 cases were pending disposal in the first two tiers of the judiciary as on 30.06.2011 and impressed upon them for expeditious disposal of corruption cases. He has inter-alia suggested formation of Special Benches in High Courts for effective and efficient disposal of these cases. At the district level, he has recommended fixation of disposal target and assignment of cases to more than one session judges besides the higher disposal credit to be given for such cases.

Shri Khurshid said that the disposal of pending cases in courts is within the domain of judiciary. Government has taken various steps to set up Special Courts to dispose of corruption cases. In addition to the 56 courts already functioning for CBI cases in the country, the Government has decided to set up 71 Additional Special CBI Courts. Of these, 62 CBI Courts have started functioning. Besides, the Government has also introduced a number of legislations in Parliament in recent times for strengthing the anti-corruption mechanism, such as: (i) the Lokpal and lokayuktas Bill, 2011; (ii) the Whistle Blowers Protection Bill, 2011; (iii) the Prevention of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials of Public International Organisations Bill, 2011; (iv) the Right of Citizen for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of the Grievances Bill, 2011.