Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Monday that state government has taken measures to fill up 66 vacancies of civil judges within a few months and this measures is expected to make virtually few vacancies at all levels in the subordinate judiciary in the state.
Speaking at the inaugural function of 18th Biennial State-level Conference of Judicial Officers on Walking Extra Mile for Judicial Excellence here, the chief minister said the government is considering the proposal to create 127 new posts of Assistant Public Prosecutors and also recruit 275 Assistant Public Prosecutors. “We are also planning to fill up vacancies of 4334 posts of all cadres in a phase manner. We have also paid special attention to provide necessary infrastructure to courts. I am glad to announce that our government has approved a Rs 6.33-crore project for the second phase of computerization of courts in the state and in the last three years, we have built 320 Judicial Officers’ quarters and 892 court buildings in the state,’’ the chief minister said.
He said the state government has taken care in filling up the vacancies of all cadres of the judicial service as well as the staffs in the subordinate courts. “In so far as filling up of vacant posts of the judicial officers is concerned, I would like to inform you that totally 151 posts of civil judges have been filled up in the year 2014 whereas 119 posts of senior civil judges are filled up in the year 2015. Further, five posts of District Judges were filled up in the year 2015 and 13 posts of District Judges were filled up in 2016. In addition to this, 63 senior civil judges were appointed as District Judges in the year 2015. Therefore, totally 80 senior civil judges were appointed as District Judges on promotion in 2015,’’ he said.
He said that according to statistics, the total number of cases pending before all the subordinate courts in the state as on November 1, 2016 are 16,24,233 of which government cases are 91,540. He said there were 201 courts in the state in 1972 and the number of courts was increased to 459 in 1977 and now the number of courts in the state has been increased to 1,300. “Now the number of courts has increased also the number of litigations and litigants. Indisputably, this esteemed institution of judiciary is one of the most important organs of the state. So, it is needless to dwell at length that the responsibility of providing necessary infrastructure and other resources for such an important organ of the state lies upon the state government,’’ he said.
He said that there has been a steep increase in budgetary allocation for providing adequate infrastructure to courts in the last three years. “When our government came to power in 2013-14, the budget allocation for the department of law and justice was Rs 574 crore. Now it is Rs 671 crore for the year 2016-17,’’ he said.
