Supreme Court (File Photo | EPS)
Supreme Court (File Photo | EPS)

Disburse funds to states for development of lower judiciary: SC orders Centre

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to disburse funds allocated to several state governments to develop infrastructure and fill up vacancies in the subordinate judiciary.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to disburse funds allocated to several state governments to develop infrastructure and fill up vacancies in the subordinate judiciary.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, having perused a report filed by senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, appointed as amicus curiae in the matter, 
directed that the compliance reports of the Centre, state governments and Union Territories be sent to Hansaria. 

Hansaria, assisted by advocate Sneha Kalita, sought directions to the Centre, as a one-time measure, to consider release of Rs 15,000 crore for pending proposals in a phased manner and the matching contribution by the state governments and Union Territories (UTs).

He pointed out that with regard to short term directions whereby the states were required to submit to the Centre utilisation certificates of funds disbursed, only eight states and three Union Territories — Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Assam, Goa and Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar island and Puducherry — have submitted the required details.

In the note, Hansaria sought directions to the states of Uttarakhand (`2.30 crore), Arunachal Pradesh (`2.92 crore), Tripura (`16.97 crore), Puducherry (`7.95 crore), Delhi (`10.92 crore) and Chandigarh (`7.97 crore) to submit their pending utilisation certificates for 2017-18 within a month before the court.
Further, he sought directions to the Centre to restore the earlier fund sharing pattern of 75 per cent and 25 per cent.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com