HEARING A matter which highlighted the issue of lack of adequate judicial infrastructure in the country, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked state law secretaries to furnish details of funds received under centrally sponsored schemes and the amount which has been disbursed by state governments for the State and District judiciary from 2017-18 to 2021-22. A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant, which perused a note submitted by Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj on the position of infrastructure and availability of judicial officers in the states/Union Territories, also asked the law secretaries to explain in an affidavit within four weeks, the amount which remains to be provided to the State and District Judiciary or was diverted for other projects as well as details of the utilisation certificates. The bench directed that a copy of the note submitted by the ASG “be circulated in a soft form to the Registrars General of all the High Courts as well as to the Law Secretaries to all the State Governments” and asked the Registrars General to respond to it “insofar as it pertains to the infrastructure and strength of Judges in each of the respective States or, as the case may be, the Union Territories”. “This exercise shall be completed by the Registrars General of the High Courts within a period of four weeks from the date of the receipt of the note, '' it added. Hearing the matter in December 2021, the top court had asked the Centre not to leave the High Courts at the mercy of state governments for funding judicial infrastructure and to develop a centralised mechanism where the money goes directly to them as per their needs. The ASG in the note, said that even where infrastructure is available, the same is not properly utilised. It also pointed to need to address concerns that nearly 2,000 judicial officers are posted for non-judicial work.
