Judicial infra in focus, Kiren Rijiju to meet state law ministers

The move comes in the backdrop of Chief Justice of India N V Ramana expressing concern over the state of infrastructure in the lower judiciary last week. “Good judicial infrastructure for courts in India has always been an afterthought” and “it is because of this mindset that courts in India still operate from dilapidated structures, making it difficult to effectively perform their function,” CJI Ramana had said at the inauguration of two wings of the annexe building at the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court.

“The total sanctioned strength of judicial officers in the country is 24,280 and the number of court halls available is 20,143 (including 620 rented halls)… Twenty-six per cent of court complexes do not have separate ladies toilets… Only 54% of court complexes have purified drinking water facility… only 5% have basic medical facilities,” the CJI had said. Rijiju, who was also at the event, had emphasised the need to improve judicial infrastructure to ensure ease of doing business. The ministry is also looking into the feasibility of creating a National Judicial Infrastructure Authority.

Sources said the law ministers’ conference is likely to discuss augmenting resources between states and Centre. Although states provide for budgets of subordinate judiciary, a centrally sponsored scheme is administered by the Department of Justice since 1993. In July, the Union cabinet extended the scheme for five years — from 2021-22 to 2025-26 — with an outlay of Rs 9,000 crore, of which the central share is Rs 5,307 crore. New features like lawyers’ halls, toilet complexes and digital rooms are included under the scheme. According to the ministry, an online system with geo-tagging called “Nyaya Vikas” has been set up for monitoring work. Over 2,700 court halls and residential units have been finalised. On digital infrastructure, electronic case management tools have been developed for judicial officers to improve judicial functioning, and e-filing application portals have been operationalised.