“Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth!” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on July 23, adding that the government has “decided to set up fast-track courts to ensure swift and stringent punishment for those involved in paper leaks”.

That same day, the Union government told the Rajya Sabha that by April 2026, 775 fast-track special courts—including 398 exclusive courts set up to deal with cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act—had more than 2,49,000 pending cases.

The Prime Minister’s statement came three days after students took out a march from the protest site at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to the Parliament demanding accountability for paper leaks. Police and Rapid Action Forces baton-charged the protestors and fired tear-gas shells, and reports suggest tens of protestors sustained injuries. Some of the injured allege the use of pellet guns by personnel, while the police have denied this claim, stating that “Delhi Police neither possess pellet guns nor do they use them in the ongoing protest”.

Fast track courts were first recommended by the Eleventh Finance Commission in 2000 "to substantially bring down, if not eliminate, pendency in the district and subordinate courts over the next five years", as ISignal explained in December 2020.

Following recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission and a 2019 order from the Supreme Court in a writ petition, the Union government introduced a centrally sponsored scheme for the establishment of FTSCs in October 2019. Since the inception of the scheme in 2019 until March 2026, these FTSCs have disposed of 3,66,124 cases, a snapshot of the Department of Justice dashboard for FTSCs—which remains inaccessible at the time of publishing—shows.

ISignal reached out to the Union law ministry for comment on the learnings from the existing FTSCs, and how fast-track courts for paper leaks can be designed to make them more efficient. We will update this story when we receive a response.

‘Fast-track courts do not address the concern’

“How does this mechanism partially, marginally or even peripherally address the concern which has brought the youth of this country out on the streets,” asked Vrinda Grover, lawyer and human rights activist. “This is about trying to distract public discourse, which is asking difficult questions, but questions which impact the future of our youth.”

“The future and........

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