A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday seeking directions to the Centre, States and Union Territories to establish special anti-corruption courts in every district to decide cases relating to black money, disproportionate assets etc, within a year.

The plea sought directions for all High Courts to take appropriate steps to decide the cases relating to offences like money laundering, tax evasion, corruption, black money within a year.

The plea, filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, said that he has filed the petition in view of the corruption watchdog ‘Transparency International’ placing India at 80th position in the Corruption Perception Index earlier this year. It said that due to long pendency and weak anti-corruption laws, India ranked 80 in Corruption Perception Index and it confirms poor performance on many fronts like the absence of corruption, fundamental rights, open government, public order and security, regulatory enforcement and civil and criminal justice system.