KOHIMA: A parliamentary standing committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice has recommended setting up of a separate high court for the Northeast state of Nagaland.
The parliamentary committee made this recommendation in its 141st report on the topic Judicial Infrastructure in the North-Eastern States of India.
The committee stated that the Kohima Bar Association had submitted a request for establishment of a separate high court for Nagaland.
In response, the committee, in its report stated, “The committee feels that there is merit in the demand for a separate high court by state of Nagaland and the ministry of law and justice must coordinate with ministry of home affairs to address the demand.”
The parliamentary panel has also flagged inadequate infrastructure in court premises in the Northeast states.
“The status of judicial infrastructure in the North Eastern States can at best be termed as work in progress and a lot of work still needs to be done to meet the requirement at the lower end of the spectrum,” the committee stated in its report.
It added: “It does not augur well for a vibrant and aspirational democracy to have Courts which are functioning from dilapidated rented premises with insufficient space and which lack basic amenities like toilets, water connection, proper electricity supply, etc.”
According to Bar & Bench, the committee recommended that it is ‘imperative’ to increase the share of Northeast states under the centrally sponsored scheme for development of infrastructure facilities for judiciary.
It was also found that no funds were released to Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura during FY 2022-23 due to pending unspent balance.
On the other end of the spectrum, Rs 50 crore was released to Meghalaya, which utilised all of the funds.
“The process followed by Meghalaya in terms of compliance of the conditions laid down by the Department of Justice and Ministry of Finance for release of funds, needs to be emulated by others to derive maximum benefit from the Scheme,” the report stated.