Crime against women: Judges take charge of fast track courts
Six judicial officers on Friday took charge as judges of fast track courts set up in Delhi to try exclusively the cases of sexual offences including that of December 16 gangrape-cum-murder of 23-year-old paramedical murder.
Six judicial officers on Friday took charge as judges of fast track courts set up in Delhi to try exclusively the cases of sexual offences including that of December 16 gangrape-cum-murder of 23-year-old paramedical murder.
The existing courts of these six sessions judges have been abolished and they have taken charge of the six new fast track courts to try cases of sexual offences.
As per a Delhi high Court notification, additional sessions judge (ASJ) Yogesh Khanna will be sitting at Saket court complex to try the cases involving sexual offence, including that of the December 16 gangrape-cum-murder case, of South and South East Delhi districts.
ASJ TR Naval will preside over the fast track court at Karkardooma Court complex for East and North East Delhi districts and ASJ Mahesh Chand Gupta at Rohini for North West and Outer Delhi districts.
Similarly, ASJ Kaveri Baweja will be presiding over the court at Tis Hazari court complex for Central and North Delhi districts, ASJ Nivedita Anil Sharma at Tis Hazari court complex for West Delhi district and ASJ Virender Bhat at Dwarka court complex for South West Delhi district.
As per the notification, all sessions judges of various districts will assign the cases of sexual offence pending in their courts to these six fast track courts.
The notification issued by Delhi high court's registrar (vigilance) R Kiran Nath also said the six judicial officers will also mark the pending cases in their previous courts to other judges.
"The courts hitherto presided over by the above officers stands abolished and the sessions judges shall assigned cases pending in the said courts to other such courts so as to ensure equal pendency," it said.
The first fast track court established here to try cases of sexual offence was inaugurated by Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir on January 2 in Saket court complex in South Delhi in the presence of Delhi high court Chief Justice D Murugesan.
At Tis Hazari court complex, ASJ Kaveri Baweja on Friday heard two rape cases, already pending in her court. Both the cases are of year 2012 and are at the stage of recording of prosecution evidence. A total of 32 cases of sexual offences against women are pending in her court.
In the court of ASJ Nivedita Anil Sharma, a total of 18 such cases are pending. She heard two of them, both of year 2010, on Friday.
Meanwhile, district and sessions judge Sunita Gupta on Friday directed all sessions judges of all districts to transfer cases of sexual offences to these special fast track courts.
"Transferor courts will send the files (of such cases) immediately to the transferee courts with the instruction to the parties to appear before the transferee court (special fast track courts) on the date fixed," the circular said.
The decision of constituting these fast track courts exclusively for trying sexual offence cases was taken after the brutal gangrape and assault of a para medical student on December 16, 2012 in a moving bus in South Delhi.
Apart from the girl, her male friend was also assaulted by six persons. The girl had died on December 29 in a hospital at Singapore during treatment.
According to court sources here, there are 240 cases of sexual offences, including 29 gangrape cases, pending in Saket court while 256 sexual offence cases are pending in Rohini court in which 46 are those of gangrape cases.
Similarly, in Karkardooma court, there are 227 cases of sexual offence pending there. Twenty eight of these cases are those of gangrapes. The number of sexual offence cases pending at are Tis Hazari courts is 208 with 26 being those of gangrapes, sources said.
A total of 96 cases of sexual offences are pending in Dwarka court in which 21 are of gangrape, while the Patiala House court has five cases of sexual offences pending there.