[Assam] From TOI --Indian Special Court's Speed

[Krishnendu Chakraborty]

While the entire episode need to be criticized,  the
special court disposed the case in "a little over an
hour" without any adjournement etc.  Are we expecting
anything faster then that from the special courts (or
for that matter, from ANY court in the world) !!



>*** If I am not mistaken these 'special'  courts were
designed to 
provide fast justice, weren't they?

cm



14 yrs in courts, 1 hour to walk free
27 Mar 2008, 0155 hrs IST,Rukmini Shrinivasan,TNN
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MUMBAI: The much hyped but much delayed special
courts, which the 
Maharashtra government set up last year to try 1992-93
riots cases, 
disposed of the first case on Tuesday: a man accused
of stealing two 
cans of groundnut oil 14 years ago was acquitted.

Metropolitan magistrate R C Bapat Sarkar took a little
over an hour 
to acquit Abdul Ghaffar, whose case was one of the
"priority" cases 
specially selected by the government to be tried in
the new courts.

Ghaffar (45), a sherbet seller on Mohammed Ali Road,
was arrested in 
May 1993 for "breaking into" and "stealing" two cans
of oil from a 
godown near his house in December 1992.

"Dozens of us were rounded up during those days and
charged with 
offences ranging from theft to murder depending on our
'look'," 
Ghaffar said during a break from work at his house
near Suleman Usman 
Bakery. "I was in custody for two and a half months.
They beat me up 
and tortured me in ways that I cannot tell you," he
added.

Ghaffar was charged under Sections 380 (robbery) and
454 (trespass) 
of IPC. His trial began at the Mazgaon magistrate's
court. "My date 
would come up every two weeks. I'd go to court, sign
my name, and 
then be told that the case was adjourned. I'd return
home by evening, 
a day's earnings lost," said Ghaffar.

For the past two years, there was no hearing and
Ghaffar was told by 
police that his case had been put in the dormant file.





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