The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday said lack of adequate manpower and budget severely affects its work and efficiency. 

The apex court body is of the view that with the adoption of federal structures, all levels of court- Supreme Court, High Court and District Court - will receive a large number of cases, and without sufficient manpower and budget, the country’s court system cannot function smoothly. 

Speaking to the media after presenting the SC’s annual report to President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Friday, Acting Chief Justice Deepak Raj Joshee said, “With the formation of High Court there’s pressures of cases, but we are compelled to work with the same budget and manpower.” 

The judiciary is yet to receive autonomy on allocating its budget. “Compared to other sectors, our budget allocation is very low which needs to be increased to enhance its performance,” Joshee said. He also said the apex court is working to ensure people’s access to judiciary through awareness campaigns.  

Hinting at the recent controversy concerning the country’s judiciary, Joshee said the media should report positive works performed by judiciary, instead of focusing only on the negatives.Concerning the growing public voice for judges to disclose their assets, the acting chief justice said, “If laws are introduced about disclosing the properties of judges, we will implement the law.” 

 The legal fraternity is divided about formulating laws to force judges and judicial officials to make their property details public. In its annual report, SC has said that enhancing the capacity of human resources working in judiciary has never been the priority of thee government. 

“The appellate courts have been scrapped, the number of district courts has increased and there is a separate Constitutional Court in Supreme Court.  The organisational and management effectiveness survey results submitted by the judiciary has not been approved yet, which has badly affected the performances of judiciary,” the report reads. 

There are already more than 400 cases pending in Constitutional Court. The SC said that it plans to formulate a mechanism in order to monitor the activities being carried out by local judicial bodies and provide necessary instructions accordingly.  It has also pointed out the need of resources to provide judicial access to the people who are poor and socially marginalised.