Supreme Court Directs Registrar General Of Allahabad HC To File Affidavit On Infrastructure For Hathras Judicial District

The petition states that the cause of action to file the present petition arose when Mr. Sharma visited the Hathras court in February, 2022 and came to know that there are no district court premises, infrastructure and other facilities for judicial officers, litigants and advocates. In fact, the District Court in Hathras is running in a rental area, in the horse stable, in an old fort.

Though, Mr. Sharma had sought the Court's intervention to issue notice to all the States and Union Territories, a Bench comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Hima Kohli thought it fit to restrict itself to the grievances regarding the judicial district of Hathras for the moment. While issuing notice to the State of U.P., the Bench granted liberty to implead the Registrar General of the Allahabad High Court and also issued notice to them.

"Notice shall be issued only to the State of UP impleaded as 3rd Respondent. Liberty is also granted to implead the Registrar General of the High Court of Judicature of Allahabad. Notice to be issued to the newly added respondent."

The concerned Registrar General has been asked to file an affidavit, within a period of 3 weeks, indicating steps taken to set up proper infrastructure for the judicial district of Hathras.

Further, the Bench directed, the first respondent, i.e. Cabinet Secretary of India to be deleted from the array of parties.

"The first respondent shall stand deleted from the array of parties."

The PIL filed by Mr. Sharma also seeks directions for framing a constitutional committee of Supreme Court Judges for implementation of infrastructure of district court and subordinate court in each district of the State and Union Territories. The petition points out that the Hyderabad District Court of Erramanjil, Kukutpatti , Medchall etc. are also running in rental buildings.

The petition submits that Entry (11A) of concurrent list in Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India bestows combined rights and duties upon State Governments and Union Government for judicial organisations of all Courts except the Supreme Court of India. The petition asserts that in the absence of adequate infrastructure the virtual hearing system cannot be adopted by the district courts.

[Case Title: ML Sharma v. Cabinet Secretary of India And Ors. WP(C) No. 158/2022]