Team News Riveting
Patna, February 1
The Union Budget presented by the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha on Tuesday has a mixed bag for the members of the legal fraternity, according to leading woman lawyer of Patna High Court Chhaya Mishra
Commenting on the budget allocations for the union ministry of law and justice, Chhaya Mishra, a former joint secretary of the Advocates Association, said the budget allocation had been reduced to Rs 3393 crore for financial year 2022-23 against the revised budget of Rs 4211 crore last year. Rs 858 crore has been sanctioned for improvement of infrastructure facilities of courts against Rs 778 crore in last year’s budget.
Under the national mission for safety of women, for fast special track courts will get Rs 200 crore against Rs 180 crore last year. There is no additional fund for Nirbhaya fund as Rs 200 crore is still unspent.
Under the national mission for justice delivery and legal reforms, for e-courts phase two and three, in two previous years Rs 179 crore and Rs 98 crore were allocated in 2021, 2021 and 2022. However, in the new budget, there is allotment of Rs 40 crore only.
Members of the legal fraternity were expecting benevolent fund for pandemic hit lawyers who faced great hardships in last three years due to lock down closure of courts and incentives for the young and fresh law graduates to the legal services in courts.
Chhaya Mishra, however, welcomed the announcement for a new litigation policy in the Income Tax department which she hoped would reduce litigation between the income tax assesses and department.
Chhaya Mishra suggested more fund could have been allocated for better infrastructure facilities for courts as 78000 cases were pending in Supreme Court, 57 lakhs in High Courts and 4 crores in subordinate courts.
