The subordinate judiciary in Maharashtra as well as the Bombay High Court is all set to join the ranks of several High Courts in the country in adopting a more “professional” way of functioning as it is soon going to employ 45 MBA graduates as ‘court managers’ in the high court as well as district courts.
As the name suggests, these qualified and skilled management graduates, by applying their management principles and knowledge, will be focusing towards enhancing court’s efficiency besides suggesting ways to reduce the mounting backlog of cases in courts.
The idea of hiring management graduates to improve the functioning of judiciary was mooted by the 13th Finance Commission in its report submitted in 2009. In a rather belated move, the Bombay HC has came out with an advertisement inviting on-line applications for the posts of 45 ‘court managers’. Of these 45 managers, with MBA being their educational qualification, four would be general managers who will be posted in Bombay HC and its two Benches at Nagpur and Ahmedabad and six shall be senior court managers who may get their posting at any of the divisional headquarters of district courts - Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Nashik, Amravati or Thane.
While general managers would be required to have minimum eight years of experience in a government organisation or any company, for others five years work experience would suffice, according to the advertisement. Candidates, who meet the basic requirements, will be asked to sit for a preliminary screening test.
Based on the cut-off marks to be fixed by the High Court, short-listed candidates will then appear for a viva before being finally selected for an interview.
The Finance Commission had provided Rs 2,500 crore for five years to dispose of over 1,125 lakh cases pending in lower courts in the country. Of this amount, Maharashtra’s share was Rs 542.65 crore for implementing measures to improve overall delivery of justice. The State’s Law and Judiciary Department has allocated Rs 26.63 crore for the posting of court managers for the next five years.
Aimed at lessening the administrative workload of judges, these managers will give the judicial officers much-required time to focus on judicial work. The primary task of these managers, according to the advertisement, shall be to laying down performance standards (including on parameters like efficiency, timeliness, quality of court performance, infrastructure etc.). They will also be responsible for making an updating Court Development Plan (CDP).