The Supreme Court on Friday directed the High Courts to frame or amend existing rules for appointment of court managers, while expressing concern that they are currently working on a contractual basis..The Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai and Justices Augustine George Masih and K Vinod Chandran asked the High Courts to tweak the rules to suit their peculiar needs and submit them to state governments within three months.The Court also directed that existing court managers be regularised, subject to their passing a suitability test. A similar direction had been passed in 2018 as well. .Though the Court today clarified that regularisation shall be from the beginning, it added that such court managers shall not be entitled to any arrears. It flagged that the court managers - a post introduced after 13th Finance Commission - were still working on a contractual basis."We are at pains to say that they are still working on contractual basis and some states have discontinued them for shortage of funds.".Court Managers in the Indian judiciary.The posts of court managers were created to assist judges in administrative duties in High Courts and District Courts.Today, the top court said the court managers shall be Class-II gazetted officers. "They shall be under Registrar General of High Court and in district court they shall be under registrar or superintendent of such district court," it clarified..The judgment was passed today on an application in the All India Judges Association case. In 2018, the top court had ordered that professionally qualified court managers, preferably with an MBA degree, must be appointed to render assistance in performing the court administration. "The said post of Court managers must be created in each judicial district for assisting Principal District and Sessions Judges. Such Court Managers would enable the District Judges to devote more time to their core work, that is, judicial functions. This, in turn, would enhance the efficiency of the District Judicial System. These court managers would also help in identifying the weaknesses in the court management systems and recommending workable steps under the supervision of their respective judges for rectifying the same," the Court had ordered..Senior Advocate Siddharth Bhatnagar was Amicus Curiae in the case.Advocate Siddharth R Gupta appeared for the National Association of Court Managers (an intervenor), along with advocates Prabhakar Mrigank (Advocate on Record), Uddaish Palya and Aman Agarwal..[Read Judgment]
