Delhi Govt's indifferent approach to sanction requests from District Courts most disappointing: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said that the Delhi Government's "indifferent approach" to sanction requests made by the District Courts is "most disappointing" and is not expected of the Executive. (Anand Vaid vs Preety Vaid vs Ors).Such an indifferent approach adopted by the respondent to the genuine requests for according sanctions in respect of several critical matters made by the District Court from time to time, starting from May 2018, is most disappointing and not expected of the Executive, which in discharge of its constitutional duty, is expected to provide all the facilities that are required by the District Courts for effectively discharging their judicial obligations.Delhi High Court said. .A Divison Bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad was dealing with the matter concerning the up-gradation of infrastructure and internet facility in Delhi District Courts..Delhi Government submitted that since the proposals relating to digitization/scanning of court records, enhancement of existing internet facility to 1 GBPS, installation of LAN, network-attached storage, etc have been approved, the present petition be disposed of. .Delhi Govt sanctions over Rs 6 crore to upgrade existing internet connection at District Courts and digitise court records.Reetesh Singh, OSD (Examination), Delhi High Court, however, pointed out that there were several other requests/pending sanctions/revalidation of sanctions pertaining to the Delhi District Court. .A Status Report to this extent was filed by the District and Session Judge (HQ)..Singh submitted that the sanctions that have now been received from the Delhi Government are in respect of matters that were flagged as long back as in May 2018, and were facilitated only after the issue was taken up on the judicial side. .The Court was informed that the other long-pending matters included an urgent request for the purchase of vehicles for use of senior judicial officers, lady judicial officers and other court-related work. .The issue of revalidation of sanction of budgetary allocation for recruitment of staff in the Delhi District Courts, Family Courts, DSLSA and the Delhi Judicial Academy, as well as for holding written test, typing test and interview for the post of Junior Judicial Assistants (JJAs) etc, is also pending, it was said. .Singh further said that financial sanction for recruitment of Group-C category of staff has also remained pending since June 2019..In view of the status of these pending requests from the District Courts, the Court declined to accede to Delhi Government's request to close the present petition on the judicial side..In our view, had the pending matters relating to sanction and revalidation of requests not been taken up on the judicial side, their fate would have remained the same as it was ever since the year 2018.Delhi High Court remarked. .Stating that Delhi Government's indifferent approach is the most disappointing, the Court added, .A Judicial Officer cannot be expected to function effectively in court in the absence of adequate support staff including the Group-C staff. Nor can judges be deprived of official vehicles for commuting to the court. To state that issues relating to purchase of vehicles and permission for revalidation of budgetary allocation for recruitment of staff is not so urgent and can wait, is most untenable and turned down.Delhi High Court.The Court also noted that pursuant to its order passed in June 2020, steps ought to have been taken by the Delhi Government with respect to other pending proposals but instead, it was requesting the Court to close the matter..After the Standing Counsel (Crl) for the Delhi Government, Rahul Mehra sought time to revert back with instructions from the Department on the remaining pending issues, the Court refrained from passing any further orders and called for an affidavit indicating a timeline within which the remaining matters shall be processed..The matter would be heard next on September 21..Read the Order: