The Supreme Court on Monday asked the United Progressive Alliance government if it intended to continue the fast track courts.
The SC questioned the fate of the 1,734 special courts in the absence of allocation of funds.
A Bench comprising Justice S B Sinha and Justice S H Kapadia told Solicitor General G E Vahanvati that the court was given the impression that the FTCs, set up to dispose of long-pending criminal cases, would continue for another five years.
Vahanvati said he will discuss the matter with Finance Minister P Chidambaram and get back to the court on Wednesday, the next date of hearing.
The FTCs, conceived by former law minister Arun Jaitley, started functioning with a central grant of Rs 509.2 crore from the 11th Finance Commission.
However, the government on March 14 informed the Rajya Sabha that the 12th Finance Commission had been requested to provide funds for continuing the FTCs, but the commission had made no recommendations in this regard.
