The Madras High Court today hoped that the state and central governments will not createa situation for it to take recourse to provisions of the Constitution for allotment of necessary funds for functioning of the judiciary.
A Full Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justices T S Sivagnanam and R Mahadevan made the observation while passing interim orders on three PILs, one filed by G Krishnamoorthy in 2001, another by Elephant G Rajendran and third one by M/s. GM Mani Associates in 2002, praying for allotment of necessary funds for the effective functioning of the judiciary.
During pendency of the pleas, "the problem of finances for the judicial infrastructure and running of the courts has still not been solved. As on date, about 176 financial proposals are pending with the government, an aspect which is being attended to in another petition".
"It is with deep regret we note that a judicial training programme scheduled for second half of October 2016 has been cancelled on account of lack of funds with the judicial academy.
The court said, "It is in the aforesaid circumstances that we called upon the Additional Solicitor General of India to assist us as to how the functioning of the court would take place if fund-flow does not arise from the state government.
"He has drawn our attention to Article 256 of the Constitution, to submit that if the situation so arises, administrative directions can be issued by the central government."
It said, "the Government Pleader submits on behalf of the state government that the proposals are being processed on an urgent basis. We can only hope that a situation does not come to pass where recourse to provisions of the Constitution becomes necessary on account of not making available the funds for the functioning of the judiciary."
The bench said on account of failure of the state government to use central allocated funds for 2014-15 and 2015-16, "the funds have lapsed. Allocation for the financial year 2016-17 has been used but further allocation has been sought for by the state for Rs 107 crore approximately".
Stating that these matters can be discussed with law officers of the central and state governments, it then posted the matter toNovember 10.
When the matter came up today, Justice Kaul said, "The
major problem is infrastructure and without funds how to get infrastructure for judiciary. The allocation in the budgets is much less. State is not interested in judiciary.
"If the State is not allocating funds what can be done?" he told Additional Solicitor General G Rajagopalan appearing on behalf of the central government.
The ASG said, "If there is non-compliance by the state, there can be administrative order by the Union under Article 256.
"There appears to be non inter-coordination between the central government and state government law officers. We will sit and discuss and there may be a judicial order on that aspect," he submitted.
