Supreme Court: The 3-judge bench of Ranjan Gogoi, CJ and L. Nageswara Rao and Sanjiv Khanna, JJ has directed the short-term measures as suggested by the amicus curiae regarding funding for infrastructure of subordinate judiciary by the Central Government and the State Governments be implemented, while the Central Government responds to the suggestion on long-term measures till next date of hearing.
The Court, hence, directed:
- the Central Government to release funds within two months to the extent Utilization Certificates have been sent by the respective State Governments and submit compliance report to this Court;
- the State Government(s) to submit pending utilisation certificate(s) to the Central Government within four weeks and furnish information in the format annexed with the present order within a period of six weeks to this Court;
- the Central Government may disburse the amounts and/or give response within two months of furnishing pending utilization certificates by the State Government and submit compliance report to this Court;
- Copies of all reports submitted by the Central Government and the States/UTs to this Court would be simultaneously sent/furnished to Shri Vijay Hansaria, learned Amicus Curiaso so that in case of necessity, appropriate directions may be sought from this Court.
Senior Advocates Shyam Divan, K.V. Vishwanathan and Vijay Hansaria along with Advocate Gaurav Agrawal, were appointed as the amicus curiae.
The Court will next take up the matter on April 29, 2019.
[Malik Mazhar Sultan v. UP Public Service Commission, 2019 SCC OnLine SC 297, order dated 28.02.2019]