Assam swings into action following SC directions on judicial infrastructure

15.09.2010 | 08:00 Gauhati Law et al. News Network
After being pulled up by the Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia for its failure to comply with the Supreme Court’s directive, Assam government has constituted a State Committee as well as district committees for each of its districts to monitor the development of infrastructure for the subordinate judiciary. A source informed that Assam government took the step in terms of the order of the Supreme Court dated July 12 passed in connection to an Interlocutory Application No. 279 (in Writ petition (c) No. 1022 of 1989). The district committees have been directed to furnish the required information regarding the infrastructure need in respect of court buildings and residential quarters of the judicial officers to the State Committee for compilation and submission to the Central Monitoring Committee, which in turn, will be responsible for submitting the report to the Supreme Court. In respect of the state of Assam, reports from the district committees are being collected by Gauhati High Court as well as by the Judicial Department. Once all reports are received, the State Committee will compile the information, so received, and submit the same to the Central Monitoring Committee in the format supplied by the Supreme Court. It may be mentioned that the Chief Justice of India recently paid a visit to Guwahati and Shillong to take stock of the state of infrastructure in respect of subordinate judiciary in Assam and Meghalaya. He held interaction with judicial officers of the region during the visit to get first hand information from the ground so as to cross check the reports submitted by the state governments about the state of infrastructure facilities available for the subordinate judiciary. The CJI was not impressed at all by the state of infrastructure facilities available for judges, lawyers and litigants in lower courts in these states though the respective state governments in the status reports sent earlier to the Supreme Court had painted a very rosy picture. The matter relating to “Infrastructure in Subordinate Judiciary and setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle towards its improvement” has been coming up before the Supreme Court of India regularly. The latest order in this regard was passed on September 13 by a bench comprising Chief Justice SH Kapadia, Justice Aftab Alam and Justice KS Radhakrishnan. The court in its latest order has observed that many states are yet to implement the directions passed by the Supreme Court regarding furnishing of reports with respect to existing, ongoing and proposed plans towards infrastructure plans for housing for subordinate judiciary. The court further noted that wherever the reports have been furnished, they are not accurate or do not provide complete picture. All states thus have been directed to comply with its directions by the next date of hearing. While passing directions in the abovestated matter, the Supreme Court has observed that while ordinarily it does not interfere in financial matters, it was important for it to intervene in view of importance of subordinate judiciary in delivery of justice and its neglect at the hand of government. The Supreme Court observed, “Justice Delivery System is the bedrock of the rule of law, which is held to be the basic structure of the Constitution and it is our view that, in the absence of adequate judicial infrastructure, particularly for the subordinate Courts, it would not be possible to sustain rule of law in this Country.” source: www.lawetalnews.com