Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 13: In a PIL filed by one Ganesh Sharma seeking construction of District Court Complex in Samba, Division Bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice MM Kumar and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur today directed authorities to explain the reasons behind different yardsticks in construction of administrative and judicial infrastructure.
When the PIL came-up for hearing, Principal Secretary Finance, BB Vyas, who was personally appearing in the court as per the earlier direction, apprised the DB that final order with regard of sanctioning of funds was issued yesterday and an amount of Rs 2027 lakh has been sanctioned for construction of District Court Complex Samba with the prior approval of Planning Department.
However, the DB observed, “the respondents have failed to answer one basic question posed in the last two orders. In the last but one para of the order dated December 26, 2013, this Court had solicited the response as to whether identical yardstick is applied to administrative complexes, which is fixed for judicial court complexes built in the State”, adding “as there was no response the same direction was also repeated in last order and the status report dated February 12, 2014 does not disclose the yardstick adopted for administrative complexes”.
Taking serious note of this, DB sought details with regard to expenditure incurred on administrative complexes and on the residences of the officers on administrative side and the explanation as to why a different yardstick is being adopted with regard to incurring of expenses on the judicial court complex.
“The response shall be filed within two weeks indicating the allocation of funds for the judicial infrastructure during the current budget and budget for the next financial year”, the DB directed.
Advocate Ankesh Chandel appeared for the PIL whereas Senior AAG Gagan Basotra for the State.
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