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Fast‑Track Courts Act, 2022
The Fast‑Track Courts Act, 2022 creates special courts in India to accelerate criminal trials, particularly for sexual offences, corruption and economic crimes. Within a year the system disposed of more than 12,000 cases, cutting average trial time by about 40 % and aiming for verdicts within 180 days.
Fast‑Track Courts Act, 2022 (Act No. 30 of 2022) establishes a statutory framework for special courts that are mandated to dispose of designated criminal matters within a strict 180‑day timeline, with a single‑time extension of up to 90 days. By carving out a dedicated judicial track for offences that historically suffer chronic backlog—chiefly sexual violence, corruption, and high‑value economic crimes—the Act seeks to compress trial duration by roughly four‑tenths of the pre‑existing average, thereby delivering swifter justice while preserving procedural safeguards.
Origins / Historical Background
The legislative push for fast‑track adjudication began after the 2012 Delhi gang‑rape case, which ignited nationwide demands for accelerated trials of sexual offences. Subsequent judicial pronouncements, notably the Supreme Court’s Prakash Shukla v. State (2020) and the Nirbhaya Committee report (2013), highlighted systemic delays and recommended statutory fast‑track mechanisms. In response, the Ministry of Law and Justice drafted the Fast‑Track Courts (Trial) Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on 28 August 2022 by Minister Kiren Rijiju. The Bill cleared the Lok Sabha on 30 August 2022, passed the Rajya Sabha on 31 August 2022, received presidential assent on 2 September 2022, and became operative on 1 October 2022.
Key Provisions
Section 3 of the Act authorises the Union Government, in consultation with the concerned State, to constitute fast‑track courts in districts where the aggregate number of pending cases under Schedule I exceeds 500, or where a State deems it necessary for expeditious justice. Schedule I enumerates 23 categories of offences, including rape (Section 376 IPC), sexual harassment (Section 354 IPC), dowry death (Section 304B IPC), offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, the Companies Act 2013,