It is not the functioning of the Collegium, which recommends appointment of judges for higher courts, but lack of adequate infrastructure and huge vacancies of judicial officers in subordinate courts that is a matter of concern for the judiciary, the Supreme Court said Thursday.
Deliberating on the issue of dealing with a sharp rise inthe number of child rape cases, the apex court expressed anguish that judicialofficers in places away from the national capital have to work in difficultconditions.
“What are the ground realities in states like Tripura,Odisha and Himachal Pradesh? In states like Madhya Pradesh, they still believein putting curtains in the court between the accused and the victim,” abench headed by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi said.
The bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta andAniruddha Bose, said that courtrooms in Delhi district courts like in Saketcannot be compared with those in other parts of the country.
“You may have vulnerable witness room in Saket courthere but we are talking about states where we do not have these facilities. Wehave places where a magistrate sits in a 4 by 4 room. We have seen this andthis is the reality of courts,” the bench said.
There are 5,000 vacancies of judicial officers in thecountry and the legislature comes out with one law after another, the benchsaid, adding there is a “pumping” of cases on the same judge andvarious law contemplates that matters should be decided within six months orone year.
“Nobody is looking at the judicialinfrastructure,” the bench said, adding that “these are the issuesconcerning the judiciary and not the collegium of the Supreme Court”.
“We have lost the track,” the bench said.
The bench spoke a line referring to the Collegium as inrecent years there has been a lot of criticism over the appointment of judgesfor the apex court and high courts through the Collegium system in which fiveand three senior-most judges of the top court recommend the name forappointment of judges for higher judiciary.
The apex court said that Delhi district courts have the bestof facilities but in places like in north-east and Odisha, the same facilitiesare not available and cases under the Protection of Children from SexualOffences (POCSO) Act are being tried by putting curtains to follow the lawwhich requires that the victim should not be exposed to the accused whilerecording of his or her statements during the trial.
“In Delhi, you have the best facility. In other partsof the country, like in north-east states, you have a curtain in the court tomake separation. This is mockery of justice. We need to have requisiteinfrastructure for courts,” the bench said.
“States cannot do all these things on its own and wewill ensure that the Central government provide all facilities,” the benchsaid.
At the outset, senior advocate V Giri, who is assisting thecourt as an amicus curiae in the case titled ‘Alarming rise in the number ofreported child rape incidents’, came out with his report on the reasons behinddelay in investigation, prosecution and trial in cases under the POCSO.His report dealt with stages relating toregistration of cases under the POCSO Act, its investigation and trial.