Supreme Court Dismisses Plea Seeking Allocation Of Separate And Adequate Funds For Judiciary

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a PIL filed seeking directions for allocation of separate and adequate funds for Judiciary.

"We do not want to give any directions to the government. We will deal with this appropriately", the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said.

A three-Judge Bench led by CJI Ramana, Justice Bopanna and Justice Hrishikesh Roy was hearing an application for restoration of the PIL which was dismissed by the Apex Court Bench led by Former CJI SA Bobde in March for non prosecution.

"Sorry we don't want to. We don't want to give direction to Government to allocate funds, not in this case. Application restored. Writ petition dismissed, without expressing any opinion. " the Bench said.

During the hearing today, Advocate Reepak Kansal appeared in person and informed the Court that he has filed an application for restoration of the case. On Bench's query regarding the issue involved in the case, Mr Kansal informed the Court that the plea seeks directions for allocation of funds for Judiciary.

The present plea has filed seeking direction to Centre and State government to allocate separate and adequate funds for smooth, effective and impartial functioning of the judicial system.The plea also sought directions for the constitution of a separate Secretariat with the Supreme Court and High Courts to manage the funds allocated to the judiciary.

According to the public interest petition, the allocation of the bigger portion of budget in the segments other than judiciary amounts to parallel situation where judiciary is not able to discharge its functions in the way its is expected to do so. The Central and State Governments do not even consider judiciary important so as to organise funds or to make any establishment in the infrastructure of the judiciary.

The plea also contended that the Judiciary is fully dependent for allocation of funds on the Center and State Government which are the regular 'litigants before the Courts of law, and due to such dependency, the courts of law have influence of the governments in its judgments.

"In the last more than 70 years, there has been no proper allocation of funds adequate with the. corresponding increas~ in population, legal awareness, increase in legislation and as such the sanie is a clear violation of the basic structure of the Constitution as well as basic human rights" the plea reads

The plea further stated that there are many Chief Justices of India who have also observed and held that the poor allocation to the judiciary has been a contentious issue. It is also observed that the Governments hardly spend on the judiciary less than 0. 5 per cent of the budget.

The plea was filed by Advocate Harisha SR and drawn by Advocate Reepak Kansal.