New Delhi, November 22
The Supreme Court today said it intended to order the setting up of special courts for disposal of cases involving damage to public property within three months.

A Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and SJ Mukhopadhya also expressed its desire to direct mandatory prosecution of those giving calls for blocking rail and road traffic as part of measures to prevent losses running into several crores of rupees.

“We are indicating to you that we are going to order mandatory prosecution of such people. They must be prosecuted by special courts and the cases must be disposed of in three months,” the Judges told an advocate who appeared on behalf of Solicitor General Rohinton Nariman and sought an adjournment in a similar case.

The Bench had asked the SG to devise a mechanism in consultation with the Central government for ensuring better coordination among the police and other security forces to deal with agitators who damaged railway property and state-owned buses.

The proposal had cropped up during the hearing of two PILs relating to damage to the railways caused by Jats of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana in the course of their agitation demanding job quota for them. The Bench was also seized of the rail and road ‘roko’ agitation in the wake of filing of cases against the accused in the anti-Dalit violence in Mirchpur, Haryana.

Recalling a number of agitations that had rocked various parts of the country in the recent years, the Bench said at times even ministers took part in such stirs as “part of their political agenda.” The Judges made specific references to Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

In a rail ‘roko’ agitation in Faridabad two years ago, several trains were stopped and their window panes smashed with no resistance from anybody, it noted.

“Are you really serious in stopping all this? ....Since you are not doing it, being the third constituent of the state, we will do it. But it is your function, not ours,” the apex court noted.