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Monday, Sep 20, 2004

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Haryana seeks separate High Court

By Our Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH, SEPT.19. The Haryana Government has urged the Centre to set up a separate High Court for the State, which would also have the territorial jurisdiction over the Union Territory of Chandigarh, in the existing premises of the Punjab and Haryana High Court here and take steps to fill up vacancies of the judges.

The Haryana Finance Minister, Sampat Singh, who addressed the conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts on "Envisioning Justice in the 21st Century" in New Delhi on Saturday said that while establishing a separate High Court for Haryana, 40 per cent of the building, ministerial staff and administrative functionaries along with judges, appointed against the quota of Haryana, be provided to the State.

While stressing Haryana's demand for its separate High Court on behalf of the Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala, who could not attend the conference, Mr.Sampat Singh pointed out that it was a matter of serious concern that even after 37 years of creation of Haryana, it had been deprived of a separate High Court. On the other hand, he said, even the newly-created states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttaranchal had got their separate High Courts. The interests of Haryana had suffered due to a common High Court during this long period and the State had never been able to get its proportionate representation on the Bench even on the prescribed ratio of 60:40 between Punjab and Haryana. At present, there were only eight Judges from Haryana against the allotted quota of 21. He, therefore, urged that this imbalance be removed at the earliest.

With the establishment of a separate High Court and the appointment of judges against the vacant positions, not only the aspirations of the people of Haryana would be met but the judicial system in the State would also be significantly strengthened, he pleaded.

He pointed out that the funds being provided by the Central Government under the Central Scheme for the development of infrastructural facilities for the Judiciary were too meagre in comparison to the expenditure made or being made by the State Government for this purpose. He, therefore, urged the Union Law Minister to change the scheme of providing assistance saying that it should be provided on a larger scale. Also, it should be commensurate with the expenditure made by States from their own resources. To stress his point, Mr Sampat Singh said that on the whole the State Government had spent about Rs.100 crores for the construction, alteration, addition and updating of the Court buildings and residential accommodation during the last 20 years. This did not include the huge expenditure made for making the land available for the judicial infrastructure.

While giving details of the investment made by Haryana despite the meagre assistance from the Centre, he said that the State Government had spent Rs.4,987 lakhs on the development of infrastructure for the judiciary from 1993-94 to 2003-04, whereas about Rs.1,040 lakhs were allocated to the State. Similarly, Rs.589 lakhs were spent last year as against an allocation of about Rs.137 lakhs by the Centre on the construction of court buildings and residential accommodation for the Judicial Officers of the Subordinate Courts.

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