Maha govt's obligation to ensure facilities to courts: HC

The Bombay High Court has said it is Maharashtra government's obligation to provide adequate infrastructure and facilities to all courts and tribunals, and directed the state to take appropriate steps for it.
The court also said that the government cannot deny proper infrastructure on the grounds of financial constraints.
A division bench of Justices A S Oka and A A Sayyed noted that it was the "state government's obligation to provide adequate number of courts, necessary infrastructure to them and proper facilities to the judicial officers, litigants and lawyers".
The observations were made in a judgement passed by the bench on May 5 while hearing a bunch of petitions raising concern over poor infrastructure at civil and criminal courts in the state and also consumer courts, both at the state and district levels.

"The state government should be interested in ensuring that the judiciary is equipped with all the necessary and modern infrastructure so that the citizens will be in a position to exercise their fundamental right of access to justice," the judges said.
The bench noted that the objective of the framers of the Constitution can be achieved only if the government ensures that adequate number of judicial officers are appointed and proper infrastructure is made available to courts and tribunals.

"The judiciary is considered to be a vital pillar of democracy. The common man has a lot of hope and expectations from the court," the judges said.

"Therefore almost all courts and tribunals in the state of Maharashtra suffer from overflow of dockets. Almost all the courts and tribunals in the state lack proper infrastructure," they said.
"The essential ingredients of infrastructure are adequate number of judicial officers, adequate space for courts and their officers and so on," the bench said.
"Facilities such as proper sitting arrangements, clean and equipped washrooms and toilets, supply of clean drinking water, information kiosks and so on ought to be made available for litigants," the court said.
The bench said that the government cannot deny proper infrastructure on the grounds of financial constraints.

"Financial constraints are no grounds to deny permission for establishing new courts and denying essential infrastructure to all the courts whether existing or new," Justice Oka said.
The court also said that necessary steps will have to be taken to make all facilities in the court complexes easily accessible to persons with disabilities.
On the issue of cleanliness in court premises and toilets, Justice Oka said, "This issue is of paramount importance in view of the 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' initiated by the Government of India."
"In many court complexes in the state toilets and washrooms are stinking. All this should be maintained properly," he said.

The HC said the government will have to come up with a solution to ensure that a high standard of cleanliness and hygiene is maintained in all the court complexes.
On the issue of the structural stability of court buildings, the bench said the state government will have to take an appropriate policy decision by which a structural audit must be carried out for each building periodically.