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[ Newindpress.com ]
Sankararaman case to fast track court favoured
Tuesday April 12 2005 00:00 ISTKANCHEEPURAM: With the high profile Sankararaman murder case likely to be committed to the district sessions court at Chinglepet within 10 days, lawyers wonder how the government will handle its transfer to a fast track court (FTC) as the Supreme Court has extended the life of FTCs only till April end.
The suspense follows from the fact that the Kancheepuram FTC is the ideal one both in location and jurisdiction to handle the high profile case. Lawyers, who interacted with this website's newspaper at Kancheepuram, were sure that it would be transferred to the FTC as this court had an enviable record in disposing cases.
It may be recalled that the Supreme Court created 1,734 FTCs five years ago to ovecome the huge backlog of pending cases in various courts all over the country. In fact, the 49 FTCs in TN had cleared a total of 1.30 lakh cases in three years, sources revealed.
The Kancheepuram FTC headed by Judge S Vanangamudi had created a record of sorts, earning kudos from the Madras High Court by disposing of a record 8,000 cases in 800 working days, said Kancheepuram Bar Association president M Madanagopal.
Lawyers also seemed to concur they were happy with the functioning of the FTC which disposed of an average 20 MCOP (motor claims original petition) cases every month.
Madanagopal said he had written to state Chief Minister J Jayalalitha suggesting that FTCs be continued following the state government allocating Rs 5 crore for these courts recently. While this amount would only last for a few months the FTCs, if necessary, could be converted into additional district sessions courts in their present locations, he added.
With the interest generated by the Sankararaman murder case, Bar Association members in Kancheepuram are sure that the case after committal to the district sessions court in Chinglepet would be shifted to the FTC either at Poonamallee or Kancheepuram. The latter FTC’s record and its location within the jurisdiction made its transfer to Kancheepuram FTC a certainty, Madanagopal added.
While the Sankararamam murder case has placed the judicial magistrate’s (JM) court in the limelight, it has also ensured that earlier cases attached to this court were not affected by the newer case. In fact though magistrate G Uthamaraj had dealt with most cases posted for the day when approver Ravi Subramanian deposed, lawyers requested him to continue hearing earlier cases, when he adjourned - the issue of defence counsel’s demand for the prosecution documents list and permission to cross examine approver Ravi Subramaniam - to the post lunch session.
A worrying factor is that FTCs have life only till April end as decreed by the Supreme Court. It is for the state government to act expeditiously to ensure that the Sankararaman case was not affected after it was shifted to this court, Madanagopal remarked
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