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NT Bureau
Chennai, July 29:
 

Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan laying the foundation for combined court complex at Egmore in Chennai yesterday. Madras High Court Chief Justice A P Shah and Tamilnadu PWD Minister Durai Murugan are also present.

        Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan said major problem faced by the Judiciary is the pending of over two crore cases in the courts across the country.

        Addressing a gathering after laying foundation for combined magistrate court complex at Egmore here yesterday, the Chief Justice said it is not possible to dispose the large number of pending cases without increasing the budgetary allocation, modernising the Judiciary and increasing the number of courts and judges.

        Pointing out the budgetary allocation of the State government, Balakrishnan said on an average the governments were setting apart only 0.78 per cent of their annual plan outlay for the Judiciary. He congratulated the Tamilnadu government for increasing fund allocation to Rs 300 crore.

        Presiding over the function, Chief Justice of the Madras High Court A P Shah demanded appointment of 20 more Judges for the High Court to improve the disposal rate of the cases.

        He announced that the State government had cleared his proposal to establish evening court complexes in 12 districts. State Law and Public Works Minister Durai Murugan announced that all the courts functioning in the rented building would be moved to its own building in the next five years. He noted that the Government had allocated Rs 300 crore for the Judiciary, whereas in the last five years only Rs 33 crore was set aside.

        Supreme Court Judge Markandey Katju demanded official residential quarters for all subordinate judicial officers and also a mobile phone with a provision of 1000 free calls per month.

        PWD Chief Engineer (Buildings) R Raji said two blocks housing a total of 17 court halls, chambers, a canteen, association premises and a record room would come up at Egmore.

        Supreme Court Judge V S Sirpurkar, Madras High Court Judge S J Mukhopadhaya and P D Dinakaran, who heads the committee constituted for constructing buildings for subordinate courts in Tamilnadu, also spoke.