New Delhi: Union Minister of Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju on Thursday said that 733 Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) including 413 exclusive POCSO courts are operationalized in 28 States/Union Territories, which have disposed of a total of more than 1,24,000 cases since the inception of the scheme and 1,93,814 cases are pending as on October 31 this year.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, Rijiju said that setting up of Fast Track Courts (FTCs) and its functioning comes within the domain of the State Governments who set up such courts as per their need and resources, in consultation with the respective High Courts.

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As per information provided by the High Courts, 242 more FTCs have been setup up after 2017 (596 FTCs existed as of December 31, 2017, which has increased to 838 FTCs as of October 31, 2022).

The Union Government started a Centrally Sponsored Scheme in October 2019 for setting up 1023 Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) including 389 exclusive POCSO Courts in 31 States/UTs for expeditious trial and disposal of cases related to rape and POCSO Act, in pursuance to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2018 and the direction of Supreme Court of India in Suo Moto 1/2019 dated July 25, 2019.

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Initially, the Scheme was for one year and has now continued up to March 31, 2023. As per information from the High Courts, 733 FTSCs including 413 exclusive POCSO Courts are operationalized in 28 States/UTs which have disposed of a total of more than 1,24,000 cases since the inception of the scheme and 1,93,814 cases are pending as on October 31, 2022.

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