JD(U) member of RS raises issue of paucity of judges

JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav today raised in the Rajya Sabha the issue of paucity of judges over which Chief Justice T S Thakur recently broke down in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and contended that it was one of the reasons for overcrowding of jails.
Responding to this, Home Minister Rajnath Singh attempts are being made both at the level of the government as well as the judiciary to fill up the vacancies as soon as possible in both lower and higher judiciary, where the number of judges is less.
Yadav raised the issue in a supplementary during Question Hour after a reply by Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary on the issue of overcrowding of jails.

Holding that vacancies in the judiciary is one of the reasons for overcrowding in jails due to non-disposal of cases, Yadav recalled how the CJI broke down while raising the issue at a public function here recently attended by the Prime Minister.
"He (CJI) was also given an assurance there," the JD(U) leader said asking the Home Minister what was being done on the issue.
"One of the reasons for such a condition of jails is also due to vacancy of judges," he said.

Addressing the inaugural session of Joint Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts over a week back, the Chief Justice had said that "nothing moved" since 1987, when Law Commission recommended increase in the number of judges from then 10 per 10 lakh people to 50.

A teary-eyed Chief Justice of India TS Thakur had also lamented "inaction" by the Executive to increase the number of judges from the present 21,000 to 40,000 to handle the "avalanche" of litigations.
The Prime Minister assured him of his government's resolve in finding a solution jointly with the judiciary.
Replying to a question regarding overcrowding in jails,
the Minister of State for Home Affairs said as per the data compiled by NCRB from states and Union Territories, occupancy rates were 112.2, 118.4 and 117.4 against the authorized capacity for 100 inmates during 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively.
In response to a question whether the government set up any commission/committee to suggest ways to initiate prison reforms, he said that 'Prison' is a state subject as per entry 4 of the list II of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution and the management and administration of prisons is the responsibility of the state governments.

"However, Government of India has supported the states for prison modernization during 2002 to 2009 under the scheme of Modernisation of Prison, where funds to the tune of Rs 1347.22 crore were provided as per annexure-I.
"Based on the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission funds to the tune of Rs 402.79 crore were released to nine states--Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Odisha and Tripura during 2011-2015," he said giving state wide figures of it," he said.
Replying to supplementarties, Chaudhary said that four committees were set up in past to recommend prison reforms and 90 percent of their recommendations have been sent to states while Centre looked into the remaining 10 percent recommendations concerned with it.

He recalled that the 13th Finance Commission had given fund for constructing 1800 jails.