Why ex-CJI Lalit’s jumbo staff is in news

Union Law Minister Kiran Rijiju informed the Rajya Sabha that Justice U.U. Lalit once had a 40-member staff. However, the number has fallen to 28 post-retirement.

New Delhi, Dec 28: Even though thousands of cases are pending in the Supreme Court of India, there is no shortage of perquisites to the 'Me Lords'. Answering a question on the facilities and amenities available for the judges, Union Law Minister Kiran Rijiju told the Rajya Sabha that a range of facilities are offered, even when they are retired. Interestingly enough, even the retired Cabinet ministers don't get staff once they retire.

However, the unique case of Justice U.U. Lalit has made news in the mainstream media as, according to Rijiju, he holds the most number of staff. Enumerating the list of facilities and amenities being offered to the retired judges during the Winter Session of Parliament, Rijiju informed that Justice Lalit once had 40-member staff. However, the number has fallen to 28 post-retirement.

Saga of pending cases

Earlier this year, Rijiju told the Rajya Sabha that over 71,000 cases are pending in the Supreme Court and 59 lakh in high courts. The story does not end here as nearly 4.7 crore cases are pending in various courts of the country. The fight for justice in India is not just expensive but cantankerous as well. It takes a long time, at times a few decades.

Every passing CJI has admitted that the judiciary is clogged but there does not seem to be any outcome from these admissions. They also talk about the measures to improve the judge-to-population ratio; however, not much happens. There are just 25,628 judges for the mammoth population of around 1.4 billion.

CJI for just 74 days!

Interestingly, Justice Lalit had a very short span as the Chief Justice of India which lasted for around two and half months. However, like other CJIs, he is entitled for all such facilities and amenities available after retirement. However, the number of staff he holds is still a kind of record as, according to some reports, only Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Prime Minister Office has more staff than him.

Justice Lalit could have reduced the staff to a significant level if he wanted, like the other CJIs do, but that does not seem to be the situation. Generally, CJIs get nearly a dozen support staff and once they retire, they reduce the number to 2 or 3. The jumbo staff still with Justice Lalit is still an astounding story.

The billion-dollar question is: Should the taxpayers be subjected to cough up for this kind of imperial facilities and amenities?