Is there financial emergency in TN, asks Madras High Court

Chennai: Coming down heavily on the Tamil Nadu Government for poor allocation of funds for judicial infrastructure, the Madras High Court on Thursday wondered if the government now faced a situation to declare financial emergency in which case Article 360 of the Constitution would come into play. “We have concern whether the state government is now faced with a financial emergency and proposes to declare it as such, in which case, funding for all aspects of governance would be difficult. In such a situation, Article 360 of the Constitution would come into play on the satisfaction of the President”, said the full bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice T. S. Sivagnanam and Justice R. Mahadevan, while hearing a batch of public interest litigations (PILs) seeking direction to the government to allocate necessary funds for the infrastructure and effective functioning of the judiciary in the state.

The bench directed the state finance secretary, cited as fourth respondent in the case, to file an affidavit “as to whether the state government is proposing to declare a financial emergency”. Should any state declare financial emergency, the Centre could virtually take charge of its financial administration and give directions for observing “such canons of financial propriety as may be specified in the directions”.

For instance, the President could direct the state to reduce the salaries and allowances of all or any class of persons serving the state, including judges of the high court. In speaking of financial emergency, the court has been anguished by what clearly seemed to be the continued state of neglect of the judicial infrastructure and proper environment. “We must express our anguish and great concern at the manner in which funds are not being made available for infrastructure and running of the judiciary, which is one of the three pillars of the system”, said the bench, adding, “The aggravated position is apparent from the fact that even functioning funds for the state judicial academy are not available and thus, two training programmes have already been postponed”.

“The proposal for making available of additional sum of Rs 35 lakh is still ‘duly considered by the government and approval of competent authority is being obtained’. We do not see the sight of the money”, the bench said. The judges also noted that as far as the centrally sponsored scheme is concerned, the “inaction and inability” of the state government to properly complete the paper work has resulted in almost Rs 150 crore of the central funds having lapsed. “The blame rests at the door of the state government”, said the bench.