How do you monitor the money set apart for the judiciary? CJI Thakur asks Centre

The National Court Management System Committee (NCMSC) has submitted a report on assessing the requisite judge strength for subordinate courts. The report was submitted pursuant to an order of the Supreme Court in the case of Imtiyaz Ahmad v. State of Uttar Pradesh..The case relates to creation of new courts at the subordinate level. The Law Commission had made recommendations regarding the method to be adopted for calculating judge strength. The Supreme Court in its order passed on August 20, 2014 had directed the NCMSC to examine the recommendations made by the Law commission in this regard..When the matter came up for hearing yesterday before a Bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justices DY Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao, Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh made his submissions based on the report submitted by NCMSC..The NCMSC Report.The NCMSC has rejected the method proposed by the Law Commission – the ‘Rate of Disposal’ methodology. In addition, one of the major concerns raised by the NCMSC with respect to the Law Commission’s recommendations is the definition of ‘backlog’..The Law Commission defines ‘backlog’ as the difference between institution and disposal. On the other hand, the NCMSC says that this definition does not take into account the fact that every case requires a reasonable period of disposal based on the nature of the dispute involved..“Under this definition, even cases filed towards the end of the year must be disposed before the end of the year to eliminate backlog…the definition of backlog without reference to established time frames is virtually unimplementable because it would be impossible for courts to dispose of cases that are filed only a few weeks or days prior to the end of specified reference period.”.Besides that, the NCMSC has stated that the rate of disposal method is unlikely to give relief to courts that are grossly overloaded or raise the productivity of courts that are under-worked..The most significant concern raised by NCMSC is that the methodology does not take into account nature of the case involved..“The ‘rate of disposal’ method does not give weightage to cases depending on their nature and complexity..it treats all cases as equivalent in terms of judicial resources required for their disposal….it treats a traffic citation case and a complex bomb blast case as having the same value in terms of required judicial strength…”.The NCMSC has, therefore, stated that a scientific method will have to be evolved to assess the judge strength required for subordinate courts..As an interim measure, the NCMSC has proposed a “weighted disposal method” which augments the “unit system” currently followed for High courts by attributing weightage to cases based on their nature and complexity..After, ASG Maninder Singh told the Court that the Centre is ready to implement the method proposed by the Law Commission or the NCMSC, the Court reserved its verdict in the matter..Centre’s Grants-in-aid for judiciary: Ten percent increase.The Central government also told the court that the Grants-in aid for judiciary for the years 2015-20 has been increased by 10 percent. As per ASG Singh, the 14th Finance Commission had approved the proposal of Rs. 9,749 crore for the judiciary for the next 5 years..“We have distributed more than Rs. 9,000 crore to the States for developing infrastructure for judiciary and other needs. This is an increase of 10 percent”, he said..The Court, however, asked him whether the Centre is monitoring the use of funds by the State..“Has it eventually reached the High courts? Have the States given the money to the judiciary? How do you monitor that the money set apart for judiciary is actually used for judicial infrastructure and not any other purpose”, asked CJI Thakur..The Court asked the Centre to submit on affidavit a break-up of the amount given to each State and how they are being utilised by each State. The Centre has been given 10 days to file these details..Interestingly, the report of the 14th Finance Commission gives the details of the “Grants-in aid” earmarked for judiciary and police. The grants are for the purpose of reduction in pendency of cases, re-designing existing court complexes to make them more litigant friendly, enhancing access to justice and capacity building of personnel..As per the report,.“the Department of Justice in the Union Government submitted a comprehensive proposal, which covers areas like reduction in pendency of cases, re-designing existing court complexes to make them more litigant friendly, enhancing access to justice and capacity building of personnel. We have noted that their proposal amounting to Rs. 9,749 crore has been arrived at after an extensive consultation process with the States and merits favourable consideration. .We endorse the proposal made by the Department of Justice to strengthen the judicial systems in the States and urge State Governments to use the additional fiscal space provided by us in the tax devolution to meet such requirements.”.Read the NCMSC report here.