The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the 1,734 fast track courts in the country, which were to function till Thursday, should not be wound up before April 30.
A Bench comprising Justice S B Sinha and Justice S H Kapadia took a serious view of the non-allocation of funds by the 12th Finance Commission to enable the continuance of the FTCs, the brainchild of former law minister Arun Jaitley.
The 11th Finance Commission had given a grant of Rs 509 crore for setting up the FTCs.
When the Bench indicated that it would direct that the FTCs be continued, Solicitor General G E Vahanvati suggested that the matter be left to the government, as making budgetary provisions was the sole prerogative of the Centre.
A visibly upset Bench said, "The apex court has been monitoring the functioning of the FTCs, as the Centre had repeatedly assured it that not only would the existing FTCs be continued for another five years, but efforts would be made to establish additional FTCs."
The Bench said, "Imagine the chaos that will result from the winding up of the FTCs - cases will have to be reheard, judges will have to be readjusted and there will be a long delay in the adjudication of cases."
Vahanvati said Law Minister H R Bharadwaj was in favour of continuance of the FTCs.
In another writ petition filed by Chennai-based All Media Journalists Association seeking the continuance of the FTCs till 2010, the Bench issued notices to the Centre and states and placed the entire matter for hearing before a three-judge Bench.