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The brutality of Mumbai's Sakinaka rape and murder case shook the entire nation. In this case, the atrocities on the woman revived the memories of the Nirbhaya case from Delhi.
Considering these pending cases, people are wondering if these fast-track courts actually provide relief and justice to victims and survivors.
Fast-track courts have been set up across the country using the Nirbhaya Fund to provide speedy justice in cases of sexual abuse against women and children. Under the scheme, 138 courts got approval in Maharashtra, but only a few started functioning amongst them.
According to data from the Lok Sabha, in the year 2018, 1,60,642 cases have been settled in Maharashtra. In 2019, 29,779 cases were settled. But due to the slow judicial process due to waves of COVID, only 5,119 cases in 2020 and 3,039 cases so far in 2021 have seen verdicts. After UP, Maharashtra has the highest number of pending cases in its fast-track courts.
Other than that several fast-track case verdicts started getting reversed in higher courts, including the Supreme Court, and that is why the pendency has started increasing.
According to the data released by the NCRB 2020 report, Maharashtra has the highest number of pending cases at 2,07,962. Among these, in 74,039 cases there was insufficient evidence or the accused could not be traced. Among the cities, Mumbai stood second with 76,763 cases still pending. It is second only to Delhi, which had 92,622 pending cases.
With this, at the end of the year 2020, Maharashtra had the highest number of pending cases at 18,82,532. West Bengal with 14,55,107, Gujarat with 13,72,149, Bihar with 13,02,421, and Uttar Pradesh with 12,51,725 cases stood second, third, fourth, and fifth respectively.
She says we have to involve more prosecutors and recruit more investigative officers. There is no other way but to double the expenditure on criminal justice. This system has completely collapsed. To improve this, technical resources like more forensic labs are needed.
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