Govt seeks separate cadre to help court administration

The law ministry has proposed setting up a separate cadre of court administrators so that judges can “devote more time to judicial work.”

This will keep judges and judicial officers “free from administrative, financial and managerial work,” Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote in a letter to all chief justices, suggesting the creation of a separate “permanent cadre” for court administration, management and financing tasks at the state level.

Prasad said he will consult state governments on the issue and invited suggestions from the chief justices before going ahead with the discussions. The 13th Finance Commission had allotted `300 crore for the appointment of court managers for 2010-2015 to assist judges in streamlining court administration, the minister said. However, it failed to achieve the desired results, Prasad wrote. Only one-third of the sanctioned amount was released and one-seventh utilised.

A permanent cadre of court administrators may help overcome problems faced in this regard earlier. “Recruitment on contract basis, low remuneration package, reluctance on the part of judiciary to accept court managers to participate in judicial process” were identified as the reasons for failing to attract suitable candidates.

Court managers who participated in a discussion on the subject by the Maharashtra Judicial Academy in February 2016 identified “lack of clear directions” from judges and their “ambiguous status” in the court system, “non-inclusion” in various committees and lack of promotion avenues as the reasons.

Prasad said it was decided at the Conference of Chief Justices in April 2013 that the national and state judicial academies would take steps to impart training in managerial skills to judicial officers. It was agreed that high courts would consider sending judicial officers in batches to the Indian Institutes of Management for such training.