India 2018

Law and Justice 383
the matter with the High Courts for filling up the existing vacancies. Emphasis
is also being laid on proper training of all court functionaries.
Judicial Infrastructure
The primary responsibility of infrastructure development for the subordinate
judiciary rests with the state governments. ACentrally Sponsored Scheme has
been in place since 1993-94 to assist the States for the development of judicial
infrastructure. It covers the construction of court buildings and residential
accommodation of judicial officers. Until 2011, the Central and State
Governments used to contribute an equal share under the scheme but from
2011-12 onwards the central government was contributing 75 per cent of the
funds. In the case of states in the north eastern states the central government
provides 90 per cent of the funding. Central funding is, however, subject to
budgetary allocation for the scheme. Out of Budget allocation of ` 562.99 crore
for the scheme in the financial year (2015-16), ` 542.62 crore has been sanctioned
to state/UTs as on 31 st December, 2015. Fund sharing pattern of the scheme has
now been revised from 75:25 to 60:40 (centre: state) (90:10 for the 8 north-eastern
and 3 Himalayan states) with effect from 2015-16.
e-Courts Integrated Mission Mode Project
The e-Courts Integrated Mission Mode Project is one of the e-Governance
projects being implemented in High Courts and district/subordinate courts of
the country. The project has been conceptualized on the basis of the "National
Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of Information and Communication
Technology in the Indian Judiciary-2005" by the e-Committee of the Supreme
Court of India. The e-Committee was formed in 2004 to draw up an action plan
for the ICT enablement of the Judiciary with the Patron in Chief-cum-Adhoc
Chairman as the Chief Justice of India.
Out of 14,249, courts to be computerized, at the end of March, 2015 all
courts (100 per cent) have been made ready for computerization, out of which
LAN has been installed at 13,606 courts (95.49 per cent), hardware at 13426
courts (94.3 per cent) and software is functional at 13,672 courts (95.50 per cent).
Access to Justice for the Marginalised
In partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the
Department of Justice (DoJ), Ministry of Law and Justice, is implementing a
decade long programme on Access to Justice for Marginalised People (2008-
2017). The project extends to the eight UNDAF states of Bihar, Chattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and
Odisha. This project focuses on strengthening access to justice for the
marginalised people by developing strategies that address barriers to accessing
justice in legal, social and economic domains. The project is presently in the
second phase of implementation. The first phase expanding from 2008 to 2012
made significant contributions.