Lawmen annoyed

By Shariff Ameeruddin Ishaqui
Hyderabad, June 6: Frequent power outages during the working hours of courts across the country has invited the wrath of the judges.
This grouse was featured prominently in the recently concluded joint conference of Chief Justices of various High Courts and Chief Ministers of states in Delhi.
Bad sanitary conditions and lack of waiting rooms for petitioners and absence of decent toilets was only adding to the owes of litigant public as well as judicial officers across the country, it was pointed out at the conference.
According to sources, most of the Chief Justices complained to the concerned ChiefMinisters that the power balckouts were putting burden on judicial officers and on the petitioners as well as most of the court buildings including High Courtand subordinate courts which are in dilapidated condition and may collapse at any moment.
Judges expressed serious concern over the lack of alternative power supply arrangements in the courts more particularly in the subordinate courts.
According to sources in judiciary, most of the courts across the country did not have even generators to combat power cuts. This was a long pending demand of the judiciarywhich had been asking governments to provide them with generators to beat the powercuts.
A judicial officer told this correspondent, "When compared to other states, our city experiences less number of power cuts. However in the districts power blackouts are is really causing inconvenience to our officers and as well as the public".
The AP HighCourt did not have a generator till date, he added.
Sources said that most of the Chief Justices who spoke at the conference drew attention of their respective state governments to the in adequacies in infrastructure, particularly in subordinate Courts, which are faced with space constraints and lack of basic amenities.
The judges stressed upon the need to phase out old and outdated court buildings to make way for modern court buildings equipped with all the necessary facilities.
"Over-crowding of court complexes is one of biggest problems faced by the judiciary in our country. The lack of new buildings as meant that more number of courts are forced to function from a single complex. In Delhi and Mumbai, there about 100 courts functioning from one complex," another judicial officer said.
"Every day several hundreds of people are visiting the courts for various works. Imagine their plight and that of the officers who have to manage such situations and also ensure that the functioning of the courts is not affected. Women visiting family courts do not even have the facility of waiting rooms from them to sit," he quipped.
Keeping in view the budgetary constraints, the Chief Justices conference resolved that wherever required, Chief Justices of the High Courts should be delegated full powers to appropriate and re-appropriate the funds, within the budget allocated by the states for the judiciary in a particular state.
The meeting also resolved that the HighCourts would approach their governments seeking funds for upgrading and augmenting the infrastructure of the courts.