State’s support to judiciary in terms of infrastructure requirements is very phenomenol, said Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari here on Thursday.
He was speaking at a function organised to inaugurate the judicial guest house constructed at the Regional Centre of Tamil Nadu Judicial Academy at Race Course. “Judicial infrastructure is not just court rooms and buildings, it includes comfortable accommodation to visiting judicial officers,” he said
Recalling his meeting with the State Finance Minister, he said: “While waiting for a flight to New Delhi at the VIP Lounge, Mr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on his own approached and asked whether the judiciary would require financial assistance”. The Chief Justice, who was the then Acting Chief Justice of Madras High Court, responded saying that he would require a big kitty and the Finance Minister had allocated ₹1,400 crore.
Chief Justice also said that recently the State government allotted seven acres worth more than ₹500 crore adjacent to the Madras High Court for constructing 116 court rooms to shift the city civil courts out of the Madras High Court. Like in Haryana, he wanted to plan 150 court rooms taking the future needs into consideration. He exhorted the bar and bench to work together to reduce the pendency of cases so that people continue to repose faith in judiciary.
Judge of the Madras High Court and portfolio judge for Coimbatore Paresh Upadhyay said that language was not a barrier and only communication was a barrier. Law Minister S. Regupathy said the government wanted expeditious disposal of cases and rule of law established.
Mr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said judicial process was inarguably slowed down and the government, with the judges, was working overtime to set right the system. Recalling his meeting with a senior judge, he said that case load has gone up ten times but the manpower has gone up only two to three fold.
District Collector G.S. Sameeran, Commissioner of Police, Coimbatore City, V. Balakrishnan, Superintendent of Police - Coimbatore Rural - V. Badri Narayanan, K. Rajasekar, Principal District and Sessions Judge, M. Sanjeevi Baskar, Chief Judicial Magistrate took part.
