Courts are for litigants, not lawyers, Bombay High Court on poor judicial infra

The Bombay High Court is not too happy with the state of judicial infrastructure in the city. And yesterday, two separate Benches expressed this sentiment in no uncertain terms..In a petition filed by the Dadar Bar Association regarding re-construction of metropolitan courts, Justices Abhay Oka and PD Naik made their displeasure over the state government’s lackadaisical approach clear. The bench asked the state to find an urgent solution to the poor condition of the courts. Failure to do so, said the court, would result in a writ of mandamus directing the closure of the metropolitan court itself..Appearing for the state, Hiten Venegaonkar stated that as far construction of a new building at Dadar is concerned, the State is facing problems with regard to acquisition of a land adjacent to the present court premises. The said land is a private property and hence acquisition of this land is likely to take some time..Another important issue is the fact that the initial funds allocated were only meant for repair work. However, considering the photographic evidence submitted by petitioner’s advocate Jyoti Chavan, Oka J noted that given the ‘pathetic’ condition of the court buildings, the only viable solution now is re-construction..Citing the situation in Mazgaon court after evacuation orders were issued Oka J said:.“The state [government] needs to look at the matter urgently. We cannot ignore this problem. Tomorrow a situation like Mazgaon may occur where twelve courts were vacated within ten minutes after evacuation orders were issued. The building was declared unsafe. We will be forced to shut down the court if the state fails to act.”.The acting Advocate General, Rohit Deo, has now been directed to appear in the next hearing on April 7 and give specific solutions..Justice Oka’s bench also heard a petition concerning the poor state of the consumer forum in Bandra. To be fair though, as this column shows, this is not a problem limited to Mumbai alone..These were not the only matters relating to judicial infrastructure heard by the High Court yesterday..The Mazgaon Bar Association had filed a PIL seeking the urgent disbursal of funds for re-construction of a court complex in Mazgaon. This matter came up before Justices SC Dharmadhikari and GS Kulkarni..Uday Warunjikar, counsel for the petitioner, said that the total budgetary allocation by the state for court infrastructure was 400 crore, whereas the cost of building the Mazgaon Court complex itself has been estimated at 387 crore. In fact, the state has allocated only 10 crore so far towards construction..Although the matter was adjourned till this Monday, Justice Dharmadhikari was not too pleased with the slow pace of progress..“Courts are not for lawyers and judges, they are for litigants. If the state is not interested in doing anything, the Bar Associations should start boycotting the courts, in that way maybe these issues will get the state’s attention.”.There is some speculation that the state might make post budgetary allocations for court infrastructure. Till then, the Maharashtra government’s failure in taking a proactive approach continues.