Supreme Court orders states, high courts to finalise rules for court managers
The order was passed on an application was filed by the National Court Managers Association last year
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday directed all states and high courts to ensure that the services of court managers hired on ad-hoc basis are regularised, and the rules regarding their service conditions finalised.
“We direct that all the high courts in the country shall frame or amend the rules providing for recruitment and conditions of service of Court Managers, by taking the Assam Rules of 2018 as the model Rules, and submit it to the state government for approval within a period of 3 months.” a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai and justices AG Masih and K Vinod Chandran said.
The court granted another three months to the state governments to grant approval to the rules, while clarifying that these managers should have a minimum rank of a Class-II Gazetted Officer for working out their pay, allowances and other benefits.
The court managers in high courts will function under its registrar general while those in district courts shall work under the supervision and control of the registrars and superintendents of the court concerned.
The order of the court was passed on an application by the National Court Managers Association last year highlighting the plight of these officers, with many states even deciding to discontinue their services on grounds of shortage of funds.
Based on the submissions made by the association represented by advocate Siddharth R Gupta, the court appointed senior advocate Siddharth Bhatnagar to suggest the possible way out.
The court noted that the concept of court managers was introduced by the Thirteenth Finance Commission (2010-2015) to enhance the efficiency of judges by providing administrative support to the judges which could lead to improved case disposal.
Guidelines released by the Centre in 2010 said the court managers would assist the administration in case management, human resource management, core systems management, IT systems management, where judges do not have the expertise.
These managers were meant to maintain information and statistics on all aspects of functioning of the court through collection of data and to prepare and update annually the five-year Court Development Plans.
The court underlined that the Second National Judicial Pay Commission (SNJPC) also recognised the importance of professional management in courts to reduce the administrative burden on the judges and recommended the appointment of court managers to handle non-judicial functions.
“We are at pains to say that even though the SNJPC in its report recommended and this court in the judgment dated August 2, 2018 had specifically directed the rules to be framed for determining the service conditions, the duties etc., of court managers, various high courts and various state governments have not yet complied with the said direction,” the bench said.
The court also asked states and high courts to consider providing a scheme in the rules for assured career progression (ACP) to incentivise the functioning of the court managers.
