January 18, 2019

On Thursday, the Supreme Court expressed its displeasure over the Centre not disbursing funds uniformly among the state govts for development & upgradation of infrastructure in subordinate judiciary.

A bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi asked the Centre to ensure that the funds should be distributed uniformly in accordance with its policy decision under which a scheme has been envisaged that the union & the state govt. would share the funds in the ratio of 60:40 for development of infrastructure facilities for judiciary.

The bench, also comprising Justice L N Rao & Justice S K Kaul, passed the order after senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, who is assisting the Court as an amicus curiae in the matter, said that the order passed after senior adv. Vijay Hansaria, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, said the

Centre wasn't distributing the fund uniformly to all states & gave example of Bihar which received ₹204.03 crore in last 4 years, whereas Odisha didn't receive any fund in last 5 years under the scheme.

The bench said there was a need for an order to ensure that the scheme is implemented uniformly in all the states.

Since Solicitor General Tushar Mehta was present in the courtroom, the bench told him "to make sure that there is a uniform disbursal of funds".

The bench told the Solicitor General to personally look into the matter as to why the difference existed regarding funding to various state govts which is affecting the administration of justice due to lack of infrastructure.

Mehta assured the bench that he'll look into the matter with Hansaria & take necessary action.

Hansaria also apprised the full bench that there was a huge shortage of residential accommodation in the states, & while most of the states reimburse full rent to the judicial officers in case of non availability of govt. accommodation, Bihar & Odisha only reimburse 10 to 20% of basic pay towards rent.

Taking note of the issue, the bench directed the HCs of Patna & Odisha to do the needful.

The top court was perusing the reports relating to Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Bihar, Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh and Odisha.

5,000 vacancies for judicial officers across the country

The SC was informed that state governments & concerned high courts have expedited with filling of vacancies & infrastructure activities only after its 5th December 2018 order.

The Court on its own had taken note of over 5,000 vacancies for judicial officers across the country & had directed all the 24 high courts & 36 states and UTs to apprise it of remedial measures.

It's also monitoring the steps taken for developing the infrastructure in subordinate judiciary.

The top court had appointed Senior Advocates Shyam Divan, K V Vishwanathan, Vijay Hansaria & Advocate Gaurav Agrawal as amicus curiae and asked them to assist it in dealing with the case.

Divan would deal with the vacancies & the processes needed to fill them up in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Delhi & the Northeast states.

While Vishwanathan would assist the Supreme Court in dealing with the vacancies in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Kerala, Hansaria would deal with Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Odisha, Patna and Punjab and Haryana.

Gaurav Agrawal would render assistance to the top court in dealing with the issue of vacancies in states of Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tripura & Uttarakhand.

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