Bombay High Court: A Bench comprising of A.A. Sayed and A.S. Oka, JJ. disposed of the petitions which contains one of the main issue of providing proper infrastructure to the Courts and Tribunals. Pleadings were made via PILs regarding issue of mandamus as the provisions of the Fire and Prevention Act, 2006 are not being implemented, there are consequential directions made against the Mumbai Municipal Corporation to ensure that sufficient infrastructure is made available for protecting the Courts and Court record, the State Government was also directed to issue an order of separation of cadres and recruit suitable Registrar and other staff for smooth and effective functioning of District Fora as well as the State Commission. One more issue which arises is as regards the making of all the court complexes in the State friendly for differently abled persons.
The present premises available to the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal being grossly insufficient, the petitioners have filed affidavit of their Secretary setting out the requirements of the Cooperative Courts and the Cooperative Appellate Courts, for issuing a writ of mandamus and directing the State of Maharashtra to provide adequate space to the State Commission, directing the State Government to take steps for implementation of recommendation in respect to the salary of State Commission and a prayer under Article 226 of the Constitution for issuing a writ of mandamus directing the State Government to pay equal salary to all the members of the District Forum on the basis of the doctrine of “equal pay for equal work” was also accepted by the Court.
The Court held that the process of filling in vacancies must be commenced four months prior to the date of expiry of tenure of the President or Member, as the case may be and appointments of the Presidents and Members of the State Commission as well as District Fora should be made under the supervision of High Court.[Mumbai Grahak Panchayat v. State of Maharashtra, 2017 SCC OnLine Bom 726, order dated 05-05-2017]
