Supreme Court refuses to give direction on allocation of separate funds for judiciary

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday junked a plea seeking directions to the government to allocate separate and adequate funds for the judiciary.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, at the outset, queried the advocate Reepak Kansal, "what kind of petition is this?" The bench also comprising Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice Hrishikesh Roy said the court does not want to give any direction to the government to allocate separate funds for the judiciary.

"Sorry, we don't want to, we will deal with this appropriately", said the bench. Kansal, petitioner-in-person, requested the court to hear the application, the bench responded "We don't want to give any such direction in the present case".

The top court was hearing an application for restoration of the PIL which was dismissed by the apex court bench headed by former Chief Justice S.A. Bobde in March for non-prosecution.

"Application restored. Writ petition dismissed. Without expressing any opinion", said the bench, in its order dismissing the plea.

During the hearing, Kansal submitted he has filed an application for restoration of the case and the plea seeks directions for allocation of funds for the judiciary.

The plea had sought direction to Centre and state governments to allocate separate and adequate funds for smooth, effective and impartial functioning of the judicial system. The plea argued for the constitution of a separate secretariat with the Supreme Court and High Courts to manage the funds allocated to the judiciary.