HP govt allocates land for judicial academy

The Himachal Pradesh government will spend Rs 37 crore on construction of buildings for the state judicial academy on the outskirts of Shimla town, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said today.
The government has allocated land for the academy to be constructed at a cost of Rs 37 crore and approval for spending Rs 26 crore has been given, he told a conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices here.
The academy will prepare well-trained and qualified managerial cadre to manage the judiciary at all levels and will point out shortcomings in these institutions, Singh said.
Legal aid clinics are being set up in the state at the Panchayat-level and 10 mediation centres have also been set up for speedy delivery of justice in the state, he said.

The government has created 10 posts of Additional District and Session Judges for rendering speedy and effective justice to litigants and two courts of Civil Judges (Junior Division) which will be notified shortly, the Chief Minister said.
Three Traffic Mobile Courts have been set up in the state to fast-track cases at the Magistrate-level and four Special Magistrates have been appointed to dispose of cases under the Negotiable Instrument Act, he said.

Despite financial constraints, the state government is providing best possible infrastructure to the judiciary, Singh said.
Residential accommodation have been made available to almost all subordinate judges up to sub-divisional level, he said.

The state High Court has a total pendency of 56,899 cases while about four million cases are pending in various High Courts in the country, the Chief Minister said.
Nearly 2.24 lakh cases are pending in Subordinate Courts out of a total of 27 million in trial courts across the country, he said.