Large number of cases of atrocities against women pending for trial
12 Jul, 2014Currently, in the state of Maharashtra, women special courts are functional in Mumbai, Thane, Yeotmal, Pune, Ahmadnagar, Akola, Amravati, Aurangabad, Buldhana, Beed, Jalgaon, Nagpur, and Kolhapur. As per government resolution (GR) issued by the state government, 14 additional special courts would be set up to exclusively hear cases of crimes against women. These new special courts are planned to be set up at Bhandara, Latur, Nanded, Nashik, Chandrapur, Dhule, Jalna, Osmanabad, Parbhani, Sangli, Satara, Solapur, Wardha and another one at Mumbai. The Bombay high court has reportedly written a letter to the state government to make its scheme for 100 fast-track courts a permanent feature beyond the 2016 deadline.
As per information obtained by RTI activist Vihar Durve, there are more than 10,000 cases of atrocities against women were pending for trial in the 32 district sessions courts in Maharashtra at the end of March 2014. As per the figure obtained through an application filed under the Right to Inforamtion (RTI) Act, 10,821such cases are pending in the state and the pendency position at the various districts shows a great variation.
· Thane district has the maximum number of cases (1,569 cases).
· The Pune district comes in second with (1,215 cases).
· In Mumbai, the numbder of cases pending has reduced as two special courts are looking into cases against the minors and two courts for atrocities against women are operational. Even the time taken for the disposal of cases has reduced from the usual 5-6 years.
Vihar Durve has demanded that the state government should give utmost priority to disposing the cases and ensure setting up of fast track courts. The position of pendency is said to be even worse in the Bimaru states.