At a time when the judiciary is struggling to dispose a whopping 300,00,000 cases pending in various courts, an internal study conducted by court management system reveals that as many as 18 states in India are not even spending 1 per cent of the budget allocated to them for judiciary.
An officer associated with the survey report that conducted the study stated while enumerating data of all states from 2006-2011, “Judiciary needs to be separately dealt with in the plans by the planning commission and separate allocation is necessary by the planning commission and the finance commission.”
Data reveals that states like Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha are spending less than 1 per cent of the total budget allocated to them.“Judicial independence cannot be interpreted only as a right to decide a matter without interference. It has become incumbent on the central government to make sufficient and appropriate provisions in budget, keeping in view the central laws so as to share the burden of states,” the report observed.
Earlier this week, a supreme court judge had also blamed the centre state funds allocation system and urged the centre to have proper coordination in place for the better functioning.
Expressing similar concern over the sad state of affairs, retired High Court Justice R S Sodhi said, “It is often seen that governments always brings in new legislations for better governance but they don’t realise its impact on the judiciary which is its implementing agency. The third pillar of democracy can’t be ignored in this manner.”
“For the development of judicial infrastructure, the states should provide requisite resources to the judiciary without cutting/rejecting the demands made by it so that it is able to smoothly discharge its judicial functions.” The study also reveals that these many states spend maximum of their budget allocated for health and education and spend meagrely on judiciary.
“New laws results in floodgates of new cases generated. In case the state does not provide necessary support of sufficient and fully furnished infrastructure and trained and sufficient personnel by way of judges and staff, the blame on the judiciary would be misplaced on account of pending number of cases in courts,” the study stated.
The study stresses on the fact that proper allocation of funds is the need for the development of judicial infrastructure and stated, “Time has come when states should provide requisite resources to the Judiciary without cutting/rejecting the demands made by it so that it is able to smoothly discharge its judicial functions.
Legislature enacts new legislations and increases the workload of Judiciary and, on the other hand, Executive holds back funds and facilities as required for administration of Justice. This tantamounts to interference in the administration of justice. One Branch of the Constitution should not ideally decline the needs of another parallel branch thereby creating difficulties in discharge of its constitutional responsibilities.”
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