India’s Ministry of Law and Justice has released the Outcome Budget for 2016-17, offering a glimpse into how the ministry shall be spending the 5,100 crore that it has been allocated.

Apart from charting out the expected expenditure, the document also reveals different initiatives undertaken by the Law & Justice Ministry in the recent past.

Of the 5,100 crore that the Ministry has been allocated, more than 70% (3,649.29 crore) has been allotted for elections; the Legislative Department under the Law Ministry also looks at elections to the Parliament and State Legislatures. 

Of the remaining 1,450-odd crore, only 900 crore comes under the “Plan” head; in other words 900 crore has been agreed as expenditure after deliberations with the Planning Commission.  The rest comes under the “non-plan” head and will be spent on the salaries of Law Ministry employees.

One of the major heads of expenditure comes under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary. A total of 625 crore is allocated for improving the infrastructure of courts across the country, with special emphasis on the North-Eastern states. This scheme, along with the National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms has been implementation from 2011.

The outcome budget reveals some interesting numbers regarding the progress of these schemes and other initiatives.

One of these is computerisation of district and subordinate courts; 95% of the 14,249 courts earmarked for computerisation have been readied for the same.

Laptops have been provided to 14,309 judicial officers, and video conferencing facilities have been installed in 667 court complexes and jails. The budget also shows that Rs. 52 crore granted the NALSA last year had gone unspent.

There are interesting statistics related to the Access to Justice (NE & J&K) Project as well. A total of 46 legal aid clinics have been established in the most remote areas of Nagaland, 400 Para Legal Volunteers (PLVs) have been trained in the sister states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Sikkim and Nagaland. A number of similar initiatives have been introduced in Jammu & Kashmir and other marginalized areas of the country as well.

Apart from these, it reveals that the number of judges in district and subordinate courts has increased 17,715 in 2012 to 20,358 in 2015.

There are also Process Re-engineering Committees set up in all High Courts to study and suggest modifications in existing rules, processes, procedures and forms. This is being through retired judges.

The outcome budget also shows how much has been spent on these schemes and other initiatives in the last year.

You can read the complete Outcome Budget below.