The Supreme Court has set a fresh four-month deadline for Centre and states to make functional all the 22 CBI courts across the country for trying corruption cases involving politicians and public servants. The Apex Court yesterday warned that failure to comply with its order will invite contempt action against chief secretaries. A bench of justices GS Singhvi and C Nagappan also observed that these CBI courts are necessary for speedy and expeditious disposal of corruption cases.

The court had on January 30 directed the Centre to set up 22 special CBI courts within two months across the country.