India, Feb. 11 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought responses from 17 states and union territories identified for setting up exclusive courts to try cases under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act.

The order was passed by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant after the Centre informed the court that, following its nudge, the Union government had granted in-principle approval for a budgetary allocation of Rs.1 crore each to meet the recurring and non-recurring expenditures for these courts. These states/UTs were identified based on the minimum threshold of 10 or more pending NIA Act trials.

Noting that judicial officers and staff for these courts must be provided by the respective states/UTs, the bench, also...