Expressing concern over the poor allocation of funds by the Centre and the State for improving judicial infrastructure, the Madras High Court has directed the Government to consider increasing the allocation for the financial year 2016-17. The increased allocation of funds was necessary since Tamil Nadu being a large State had many court complexes which require frequent repairs and expansions.
The First Bench of Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan made the observation while hearing a petition filed by an advocate seeking a direction to the State Government to implement the Supreme Court’s order mandating allocation of sufficient funds to improve the State judicial infrastructure.
When the plea came up for hearing, the Bench perused the counter affidavit filed by the State government and said, “The issue of providing utilisation certificate by the State to the Central government is over… Apart from this, for the year 2016-17, it is stated that Rs. 50 crore has been released by the Union government.”
However, the Bench noted that the funds allotted for the year 2015-16 was not utilised by the State and hence it has gone back to the Central government. “A pragmatic view ought to be taken for release of those funds, or in the alternative, they can be made up through an additional allocation in 2016-17 depending on the requirements,” the judges said. Posting the plea to August 3 for further directions, the Bench recorded that it is really concerned about the funds being allocated to the State government and the need to increase allocation towards judicial infrastructure.
