Years after rape, 23,000 victims still wait for justice

Nearly 24,000 rape cases are pending in various high courts of the country while more than 8000 of them have been disposed of in the last three years, the government said on Friday.

As on December 31, 2013, 309 cases related to sexual harassment, kidnapping abduction were pending in the Supreme Court, while 687 similar cases were disposed of between 2011-13 by the apex court.

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Law Minister Kapil Sibal informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that 23,792 cases related to rape were pending in 21 high courts as on September 30, 2012.

He said, between October, 2009 and September, 2012, 8,772 cases were disposed of by the high courts. A maximum of 8,215 cases are pending in the Allahabad high court which disposed of 39 cases in three years between 2009 and 2012.

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A forensic expert collects samples from an area where a woman was gang-raped at Birbhum district in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.

In the Delhi high court, where 924 cases related to rape were pending till the end of September, 2012, disposed of 1135 cases.

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The Karnataka high court, where 243 cases are pending, disposed of 4,522 cases in three years. The Sikkim high court has no rape case pending as it disposed of two cases in three years.

In the aftermath of the Delhi gang rape case, the Centre had requested the Chief Justices of the high courts and state chief ministers to set up fast track courts for speedy trial of pending rape cases in district or subordinate courts with high pendency and to monitor the progress of the cases to ensure their timely disposal....

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