Viewing judiciary and legislature as “siblings”, Chief Justice of India H L Dattu on Sunday pressed for coordination as well as correcting each other in case the path laid down by the Constitution is deviated from.
He emphasised that issues related to the delivery of justice including the pendency of court cases cannot be handled by the judiciary alone and the executive must extend a helping hand besides granting financial autonomy to allow spending of allocated funds and better pay packages for judicial officers to attract the best minds. He emphasised, "It is only a well-coordinated effort between the executive and Judiciary that will ensure that we achieve a just and efficient legal system." Pitching for financial autonomy to the judiciary, he said, “there must be no doubt that the judiciary is best placed to understand its needs and the problem that affects the administration of justice. Therefore, while deciding budgetary questions, there must be an effective mechanism to factor the inputs of the judiciary.”
"Of course, the final budgetary allocation is the prerogative of the Executive. However, once the allocation is made, we all believe that the time has come to seriously engage on the issues of financial autonomy for the judiciary."
