New Delhi, Jul 29(NIE): At least 1,023 ‘fast track special courts’ at an evaluated expenditure of Rs 767.25 crore are required to be set up across India to dispose of rape cases, the Department of Justice in the Law Ministry has estimated. For this, the Centre will have to shell out Rs 474 crore as central funding, the department told the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
The new scheme is part of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018, which allowed courts to award death penalty to those convicted of raping children below 12 years of age. The courts are required to be set up to ensure better probe and swift prosecution of rape cases, the department said.
”It is estimated that a total of 1,023 FTSCs (fast track special courts) are required to be set up for disposing of rape and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act cases with an estimated expenditure of Rs 767.25 crore out of which Rs 464 crore as central funding on the pattern of centrally-sponsored scheme,” a document released by the Law Ministry said. The details worked out by it have been forwarded to the MHA.
While approving the promulgation of the ordinance, the government had decided to frame a scheme to set up an “appropriate” number of fast track courts to try rape cases in the states. The scheme will include components, including the strengthening of the physical infrastructure and prosecution machinery, provision of the required number of judicial officers for lower courts, additional posts of public prosecutors, dedicated investigators and special forensic kits.
As many as 524 fast track courts are already functional across the country to try cases related to women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, the marginalised and senior citizens, an official said. While referring to a written response of Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in the Parliament in March last year, the official said that out of the 524 fast track courts, 100 are in Maharashtra, 83 in Uttar Pradesh, 39 in Tamil Nadu, 38 in Andhra Pradesh and 34 in Telangana.
The Ordinance provides for stringent punishment for rape of girls under 12, with a minimum of 20 years’ imprisonment or imprisonment for rest of life and the maximum of death. In case of gangrape of a girl below 12 years, the minimum punishment will be imprisonment for the “rest of life” and the maximum, death sentence.
The proposed Ordinance also extends the maximum punishment for rape of a child between 12 and 16 years from 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in prison to 20 years, “extendable to imprisonment for rest of life, which shall mean imprisonment till that person’s natural life”. The punishment for gangrape of a girl between 12 and 16 years of age will invite punishment of imprisonment for the “rest of life of the convict”, according to the proposed Ordinance.
For the offence of rape, of those above 16, minimum punishment has been increased from the rigorous imprisonment of 7 years to 10 years, “extendable to life imprisonment”.