The Bombay High Court on Monday asked the secretaries of the finance department and the law and judiciary department to file an affidavit stating by when they will start work on the reconstruction of the Mazgaon court.
A Division Bench of Justice SC Dharmadhikari and Justice GS Kulkarni was hearing a public interest litigation filed by the Mazgaon Bar Association, which sought directions for urgent disbursal of funds for restoration of the Mazgaon court complex. The advocate appearing for the State informed the court that Rs 29 crore has been allocated for 2016-2017.
The court said, “We are not going to be satisfied with this pittance.” “The budget for renovating the Mantralaya will overshoot and you will go on overspending.”
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“You were supposed to complete the work in 2013 and now we are in 2016. With this behaviour we will not see the building till 2023,” the court said.
“Where there is a will, there is a way. If no court buildings are required then tell us that. The State is the largest litigant with 80 per cent cases against its agencies, or corporations or officers. This is the worst kind of insensitivity.”
In the last hearing, the court had summoned the finance secretary to be present in the court, but he was present in the Assembly.
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“Let them (secretaries) realise that the court takes no pleasure in summoning them, but the State is expected to be sensitive towards the litigants,” the court said on Monday. The affidavits are to be filed in two weeks.
Earlier, advocate Uday Warunjikar, appearing for the petitioner, pointed out that the total budgetary allocation by the State for the court infrastructure was Rs 400 crore, whereas the cost of building the Mazgaon court complex has been estimated at Rs 387 crore.
The State has allocated only Rs 10 crore so far towards the construction.
‘The cost of building the complex has been estimated at Rs 387 cr’