The Indian Lawyers' Congress has alleged that the State budget presented by Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac had sidelined the judiciary.
In a statement here on Tuesday, D. Vijayakumar, vice-president of the organisation's State unit, said the budget had not even mentioned any proposal for setting up a new court in any part of the State. Neither did it have any proposal for appointing more staff at criminal courts in the State, disregarding a Kerala High Court directive in this regard.
Mr. Vijayakumar said the government had failed to set apart its share of the lawyers' welfare fund. Not less Rs.50 crore should be sanctioned on an emergency basis for the fund.
He said it was unfortunate that no allocation had been made for providing the promised stipend to junior lawyers.
