National
Judiciary seeks 1,339 new staff
The Supreme Court seeks more than 1,300 new judicial positions over the next three years to improve justice delivery.The Supreme Court seeks more than 1,300 new judicial positions over the next three years to improve justice delivery.
The apex court has sent its request for additional human resource to the Cabinet after the Finance Ministry gave its consent to hire the staff, a senior official said.
Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Bhanubhakta Dhakal said the SC’s proposal was sent to the administrative committee of the Cabinet after discussion on Friday.
“Further discussions will continue after Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli returns from the United States,” Dhakal said.
The new recruitment plan conforms to the Organisation and Management (O&M) Survey done by the SC in 2015. It had fixed 7,250 positions for the judiciary—more than 2,000 new positions from lower courts to the apex court.
The apex court administration seeks 1,339 positions as of now. Creating 1,339 new positions would increase the SC strength to 6,346 in the next three years.
Registrar Mahendra Nath Upadhyay said, “Although this number will not be adequate to manage the work load increased due to the enforcement of the new Civil and Criminal Codes, it will make service delivery much easier.”
According to Lal Bahadur Kunwar, joint-registrar at the SC, the number of cases filed in courts across the country has been increasing significantly every year.
In 2005, courts registered 110,102 cases. The number increased to 254,529 in 2017 while the increase in judicial staff has been insignificant. In 2005, the judiciary had around 4,000 staffers, who number 5,007 at present.
SC officials said around 3,500 decisions of the apex court were yet to be written. Currently, it takes around three months for a service seeker to get the full text of verdict. There were complaints that full texts of some cases even took around two years to come out.
The judiciary has only one registrar now. After the Cabinet approves the proposal, it will have two registrars—one to handle the administration and the other to oversee cases. If the Cabinet approves the proposal, the apex court plans to add 424 new positions including one secretary-level registrar, 52 under- secretary-level deputy registrars and 150 section officers in the first year.
In the second year, 527 positions including 35 more deputy registrars and 165 section officers, would be added. In the third year, 388 positions with 19 deputy registrars and 85 section officers would be added.