The Full Bench of of the Allahabad High Court has expressed strong displeasure over the attitude of the state bureaucracy regarding lack of justice rooms, judge chambers, drinking water, toilets and all basic facilities.
The Court ordered that none other than the Chief Secretary will file his affidavit in the matter and a senior officer of the State will remain present in the court to assist the Advocate General whenever the case is listed.
The order has been passed by the full Bench of the High Court, led by Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and also comprising Justice Pritinker Diwaker, Justice Manoj Misra, Justice Sunita Agarwal, Justice Surya Prakash Kesarwani, Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta and Justice Anjani Kumar Mishra.
The Court noted that,
Despite repeated orders passed by the Court and dissatisfaction recorded in the previous order passed on October 7, 2021 regarding the manner in which the officers of the State were taking up the serious issues about infrastructure and other facilities to be provided to the High Court at Allahabad and its Bench at Lucknow and also at the District Courts in the State of Uttar Pradesh, the Advocate General has not been able to dispute the fact that no concrete steps have been taken.
Even a proper Nodal Officer has not been appointed as was the statement made by the then Advocate General on that date. Only the Legal Remembrancer & Principal Secretary (Law), who is a Judicial Officer, has been appointed to coordinate between the High Court and the State which, even according to the Advocate General, is not the proper officer.
He submitted that the officer should not be less than the Chief Secretary, who can coordinate with the Registrar General of this Court and the Government as the issues can be sorted out by a senior officer of the Government and not by a junior officer.
The Court further noted that a 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.
“We were surprised to notice that though such an important matter was listed before the Court, 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.
“It is made clear that in future, in the petition, none other than the Chief Secretary of the State will file his own affidavit.
“We expect that whenever the matter is listed next, some senior officer(s) of the State will remain present in Court to assist the Advocate General.
“The response to various issues pointed out in the meetings on the administrative side and the previous orders passed in the petition shall be submitted on or before the next date of hearing,” the order read.
The Court has fixed the next hearing of the petition on November 15.