NGO seeks more funds for new courts, speedy trials

For speedy hearing of court cases, including those related to custody of children in matrimonial discord cases, an NGO on Sunday sought higher budgetary allocation for creation of new courts.

Swaroop Sarkar, a representative of Children’s Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP), said on Sunday that the central government should urgently enhance the funding of courts to three times the existing allocation.

Along with judicial advocacy group National Litigant Bench (NLB), Kumar Jahgirdar, president of CRISP, said: “There is a steep decline in the government allocation for the computerisation of district and the subordinate courts with the allocation of just Rs 2 crore.”

“In 2014-15, the total allocation for computerisation was Rs 58 crore  which was scaled down to Rs 29.87 crore in the revised budget estimates,” he said.

Pointing to the three million cases pending in lower courts, Sarkar said: “The backlog will take 466 years to clear as per a report.”

Citing the trauma children face due to separation from one parent during the pendency of court cases, the CRISP representative sought speedy justice through creation of more courts.

Seeking higher budgetary allocation for courts, Jahgirdar said: “The grant in aid to states for the development of judicial infrastructure is earmarked at Rs 443.69 crore which is nearly half of Rs 842.40 crore allocated in the revised budget estimate in 2014-15.”

To check the ever-growing number of fresh cases, the NGO sought the implementation of the gram nyayalayas in all the 5,000 villages that promise to offer the rural population a simple mechanism for resolution of their disputes without going to a formal court, he said.
For checking intentional delays in trials, Jahgirdar sought the implementation of the Justice Malimath Committee recommendations for amending the perjury laws to punish those who waste the courts’ time.