Supreme Court Pulls Up Odisha Government For Not Disbursing Funds To High Court Of Orissa

The Supreme Court on Thursday heard the Malik Mazhar Sultan Vs. U.P. Public Service Commission case in which it has taken up the issues concerning the filling up of judicial vacancies in trial courts. In today's hearing, the bench pulled up the Orissa government for not disbursing requisite funds to the Orissa High Court for infrastructural development of district judiciary. CJI DY Chandrachud remarked–

"You people also have to realise that the High Court is servicing the citizens of your state. High court is not pocketing this money."

The bench led by  Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had earlier assigned States and High Courts to the different amici curiae in the case for their examination and decided to consider the matter state-wise on specified dates. 

The bench was considering two broad issues -(1) filling up of vacancies in district Judiciaries; (2). Infrastructure including disbursement of funds by High Courts.

The Court had directed that within one week, the Law Secretaries and Registrars shall interact amongst themselves so that comprehensive position was given to amicus. 

In today's proceedings, Senior Advocate Vijay Hansaria, who was appointed the amicus curiae for State of Orissa in the matter submitted that three directions would be required for the State of Orissa–

1. 60.40 crores for the year 2022-23, which have been already allotted under the Central Sponsor Scheme (CSS) and is lying, shall be disbursed and may be kept with the Single Nodal Agency (SNA) Account.

2. For future, the Central and the State government may look into the demands for the fund amounting to Rs 722 crores (for the year 2023-24) under the State Sector Scheme and respond to the same within a period of 2 months. The said funds shall go to the SNA Account.

3. The Chief Secretary may hold a meeting to resolve the problem of allocation of land between different government departments. 

While Mr Sibo Shankar Mishra, appearing for the High Court of Orissa fully agreed with the amicus' report, the State of Orissa held a different view. The counsel for State of Orissa submitted–

"As far as the 722 crores are concerned, I have to take instructions because the State cannot disburse a total lump-sum amount at one go."

CJI DY Chandrachud interjected–

"Why can't you disburse it? This is money which is required for judiciary. What instructions do you have to take? The law secretary is here(the law secretary was appearing virtually)."

However, when the law secretary was also unable to throw light upon whether the state would be able to disburse the said amount or not, CJI DY Chandrachud expressed his disappointment and said that – 

"Look at the pattern. For financial years 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2020-21, 2021-22, no funds are received by the High Court of Odisha. You people also have to realise that the High Court is servicing the citizens of your state. High court is not pocketing this money. The benefit of this infrastructure will go to the citizens of India, of citizens of Odisha."

When asked about the position concerning the Central Sponsor Scheme,  Additional Solicitor General of India Aishwarya Bhati informed the court that–

"The directions your lordships gave were that amount was to be released as per the utilisation certificates. Fiscal balance has to be maintained. 100 crores are available for the whole country but it's on basis of who gives utilisation certificate."

The data made available to the court by ASG Bhati indicated that for 2019-20, the amount of Rs 39.65 crores was released to the State of Orissa. Thereafter, for 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23, no amounts were released. According to the note submitted by the Department of Justice, the utilisation certificates for the unspent balance of Rs 22.44 crores for the financial year 2019-20 had not been submitted yet. On the other hand, the amicus curiae drew the attention of the court to a communication of the Secretary to the Government of Orissa to the Union Ministry of Law and Justice which indicated that the State Government had already utilised more than 75% of the Central assistance released during the year 2018-19 and 2019-20, and that utilisation certificates had also been furnished. The bench noted–

"Evidently, there is a mismatch between the data submitted by Department of Justice on one hand and the communication made by the State Government. In order to reconcile, we direct that within a period of 2 weeks, a meeting shall be convened between–

1. The Department of Justice in the Union Ministry of Law and Justice

2. The Law Secretary of the Govt of Orissa

3. Secretary of Home Department, Government of Orissa

4. Registrar General of the High Court of Orissa

The purpose of the meeting shall be to ensure the re-conciliation of the utilisation certificates stated to have been submitted by the government of Orissa. Once this exercise is completed, this court shall be apprised on the next date of listing of the balance which is to be allocated to the State of Orissa for 2022–23 and the date by which it shall be released."

CJI DY Chandrachud, while dictating the order, also stated that once the utilisation certificates were submitted, the amount shall be released at the earliest to the SNA account so that the amount would not lapse to the impending end of the financial year.

The Court will consider the situations of other High Courts and States during the next dates of hearing.

Case Title: Malik Mazhar Sultan Vs. U.P. Public Service Commission |Civil Appeal No. 1867 of 2006

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