Need For Umbrella Organisation For Infrastructural Requirements of Judiciary: Supreme Court Seeks Centre's Response

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted 3 weeks' time to the Union of India for a "radical rethink in terms of infrastructural requirements of the judiciary" and for deliberating on a mechanism for monitoring allocation of funds by the Centre and the States, the disbursal of these funds and their utilisation.The bench of Justices D. Y. Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath was hearing the Imtiyaz Ahmad v. State of UP matter, and deliberating on the issue of judicial infrastructure and judge strength primarily at the state and district level across the country. The Supreme Court had in July called for the responses of all High Courts to the suggestions and recommendations of the National Court Management Systems Committee(NCMSC) on the aspects of judge strength, case load and infrastructure."Why don't you think of constituting a sort of council on judicial infrastructure. We are least interested in retaining control of the council. The benefit of having a senior judge or Chief Justice on it would be that they are in the know of things. The composition can be of the Union Minister for Law and Justice, the Secretary, Finance etc. The states can also be given representation- the state finance Minister, the state finance Secretary or the chief secretary of the state so that in relation to each state, the Union of India can then take up what is the devolution of funds to ensure that the state's contribution also comes into the coffers and these funds are actually made available to the High Court. It can also monitor the progress of the use of the funds", said Justice Chandrachud to ASG K. M.Nataraj.Continuing, Justice Chandrachud observed, "You must create a mechanism where the states are also involved but which does not leave it to individual High Courts to start using their good offices with the governments for seeking funds. There has to be a more systemised monitoring mechanism at the Centre for making available funds, for the dispersal of funds. You can also postulate a mechanism for the creation of judicial infrastructure- Not only for ensuring that funds are released to the high courts for the state judiciary, but we need a proper mechanism for developing judicial infrastructure. We are not saying that you should keep on funding and the judges would be in charge. The mission is to make it efficient. Of course, because they are the consumers of the infrastructure, they work in those institutions, judge know what is needed""Ensure that you call a meeting where you are apprised by the State finance secretaries of what is the status of the disbursement of the funds that have been allocated- Your 60% share and the state's 40% share. The allocation, the disbursement and the utilisation in each state. We would like to know for every state what is the extent of the allocation, what is the amount allocated to the states and transferred to the states by the central government, what is the extent of dispersal by the states of the state funds and out of the Central-allocated funds to the High Courts, for the state judiciary, and what is the deficit. We want to ascertain the facts state -wise. Hold a meeting of the state finance ministers and the law secretaries. They will give you a clear indication of what the position is. Ascertain it from the High Courts through the registrars-general", the judge put to the ASG.Rs 9000 Crores Approved For Judicial Infrastructure, Says Law Minister; CJI Repeats Need For Judicial Infrastructure Corporation 'Indian judiciary is a unified one, central legislations also enforced by state courts; Central government cannot hive off responsibility to states"- SCWhen the ASG assured the bench that he would put to the government the creation of a council at the central level and infrastructure corporation at the state level and seek instructions, Justice Chandrachud observed, "Don't do it at the state level because once you create it at the state level, you will have the same problem which bedevils the system today. It has to be an umbrella national organisation. Of course, we are a federal nation, when we were students of law, we would always discuss whether India is quasi- federal or federal to the extent of the K. C. Wheare theory . But you have to understand that the judiciary in India is a unified judiciary. Unlike the United States, where state courts deal with state legislation and the federal court deals with federal legislations. So all disputes don't go to the US Supreme Court from the states, It is only when a question of interpretation of the US Constitution is involved. Forget the three Lists of the Constitution for a moment. In India, the model is very different. You have the civil Judge (junior division), the senior civil Judge, the ADJ and the district judges, the High Court and the Supreme Court. All of them deal with central and state law in a comprehensive way. Every district court has the jurisdiction to deal with central statutes as also the state statutes. So we need...

Need For Umbrella Organisation For Infrastructural Requirements of Judiciary: Supreme Court Seeks Centre's Response

Mehal Jain

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