Appointment of judges can't be electoral issue: High Court

Asking the Maharashtra government to take proactive steps in sanctioning and creating additional 10 per cent posts of judges, the Bombay high court has said that it "can never be considered as an electoral issue".

There are over 56,000 cases pending relating to crime against women before the lower courts and nearly 90,000 cases relating to motor accident claims, as per the statistics provided by the government.
A division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice MS Sonak on Tuesday directed the government that "not withstanding any election or election code of conduct which may be declared, the state government shall consider the proposal for sanctioning additional 10 per cent post for the cadre of district judge."

The judges have also asked the government to place on record the particulars of the amount spent so far from the amounts sanctioned by the central government for Maharashtra on the recommendation of the 13th Finance Commission for improving delivery of justice.

The court was informed in the last hearing that the central government has already released Rs80 crore to the state government for improving the justice delivery system.
The HC was hearing a public interest litigation by activist Vihar Durve seeking appointment of additional fast-tack courts to try cases of crime against women as per the directions of the Supreme Court.
Additional government pleader Abhinandan Vagyani informed HC that the state government has sanctioned creation of posts of the Civil Judge Junior Division and Civil Judge Senior Division to the extent of 10 per cent of the existing cadre strength.

However, Vagyani said that as regards creation of additional posts of district judges, the decision will be taken by the cabinet and that the cabinet may not be able to take a decision in view of the forthcoming elections and the election code of conduct.

The government sought additional time of three months to take a decision for the same.

Dissatisfied with the explanation, the judges said: "We are of the view that creation of additional posts of District Judges can never be considered as an electoral issue or an issue which can affect the outcome of elections one way or the other."

As per the statistics provided by government, there are 11,074 cases and 45,057 cases relating to crime against women are pending before the sessions court and magistrates courts respectively. There are 3,768 cases relating to crime against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are pending and as many as 3,336 cases have been lodged under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The HC has kept the PIL for hearing on September 16.

Head: Apathy continues

Activist Vihar Durve's petition states that the apathy continues despite repeated requests from the HC, following a 2012 Supreme Court directive. Durve's advocate N Bubna pointed out to the court that despite the HC order in March, the government had not filed an affidavit furnishing details of existing courts and the number of judges' posts in the state.
Since May 2010, the HC has been exchanging communications with the state on the matter, but the government kept raising queries. The proposal is now pending before the finance department, which has sought further clarifications.