Terrorism: MHA mulling over fast track courts

New Delhi: Having faced severest criticism from the opposition parties for not doing well on the conviction front in the matters related to terrorism, the UPA government is mulling over setting up of special fast track courts for speedy trial of terrorist acts. In one of its latest communique to the state governments, the Union Home Ministry has asked the former to set up exclusive courts to deal with terrorism through fast justice delivery system.

A Home Ministry official said that the fast track court for terrorism had been conceptualized to make sure that fast trial and disposal of such case take place. Such courts are to be set up in consultation with the respective high courts in the states, as all the administrative judicial functions in a state is looked after by the high court of the state.

The main opposition party, BJP has been targetting the UPA government for repeal of POTA saying that this act of the government rendered judiciary and investigating agencies handicapped in dealing with terrorism. So, this step of the Centre become very significant in an election year. It also assumes significance in view of the fact that there are several terrorism related trials are still pending before various courts in the country.

Even the cases like Mumbai blasts of 1993 are yet to see the final outcome, not to talk of the cases like, Samjhauta Express blasts, Sankatmochan temple blats, Malegaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai local trains blasts and many more. The ongoing experiment with 1734 fast track courts has proved very effecting in disposal of cases at various levels thus reducing the burden on the main courts of law. So, this effort could prove to be another example of focused judicial trial in the country.

This, if it realises, would be the first real or different effort from the UPA government in dealing with terror related matters. Its proposal of setting up a federal agency to deal with activities like terrorism, insurgency, maoism and separatism is still in the formative stage with most of the state showing its dislike to it openly.