No Improvement In Infrastructural Facilities In Courts: Allahabad HC's Seven Judge Bench Pulls Up State For Laxity

A Seven-Judge bench of the Allahabad High Court has slammed the State Government for showing laxity towards the issue of infrastructure and other facilities to be provided to the Allahabad High Court and its Bench at Lucknow and to the District Courts in the State of Uttar Pradesh.

The Court noted that a number of issues have been pointed out to the senior bureaucrats of the State in different meetings to which no satisfactory response has been received.

"We may record that number of issues have been pointed out to the senior bureaucrats of the State including the Chief Secretary in different meetings on the administrative side to which no satisfactory response has been received. All these issues are well within the knowledge of the State bureaucrats on which no action has been taken despite seeking time and the matters have been kept pending as a result of which there is no improvement in infrastructural facilities available in the Courts, besides shortage of staff.", the bench observed.

The bench comprised of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, Justice Pritinker Diwaker, Justice Manoj Misra, Justice Sunita Agarwal, Justice Surya Prakash Kesarwani, Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta and Justice Anjani Kumar Mishra.

The bench noted that despite repeated orders of the Court and dissatisfaction recorded in the previous order passed on October 7, 2021 regarding manner in which the officers of the State were taking up the serious issues about infrastructure and other facilities to be provided to the Courts, the Advocate General was not able to dispute the fact that no concrete steps have been taken.

The Court further noted that even proper Nodal Officer has not been appointed as was the statement made by the then Advocate General on that date.

The Court was also surprised to notice that none of the senior officers had come to brief the Advocate General to assist the Court.

"We were surprised to notice that though such an important matter was listed before the Court but none of the senior officers had come to brief the Advocate General to assist the Court. Only an Additional LR, who is a Judicial Officer, was present to instruct the Advocate General.", the Court observed.

The Court directed the Chief Secretary of the State to file his own affidavit in the present petition.

The hearing has been adjourned to November 15, 2022.

Cause Title- Public Interest Litigation (PIL) No. - 15895 of 2015

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