Highlights of New Budget 2021-22 with respect to Legal Sector

 

Being an Advocate and involved in the field of law, my interest in today’s budget was inter alia in the allocation with respect to Ministry of Law and Justice (You can read the actual document by clicking here.). Following are the key highlights with respect to Ministry of Law and Justice: - 

 

1. Tax Tribunals – 

The actual total figure for 2019-20 was ₹124.18 Crores and for budget 2020-21, it was ₹172.90 Crores. However, the revised figure for budget 2020-21 was ₹248.70 Crores marking a substantial increase in expenditure. For the Budget 2021-22, the estimated figure is ₹219.30 Crores. These figures show that there is a clear intent to push for the Tax Tribunals (Secretariat Expenditure for Income Tax Appellate Tribunal and Arbitration Council of India). The increase in the allocation reflects that more manpower and infrastructure will be provided to the Tax Tribunals.

 

2. Action Research and Studies on Judicial Reforms –

According to the revised estimates of 2020-21, the budget allocation was ₹35 Crores. However, surprisingly, the budgetary allocation for 2021-22 seems to be absent. This allocation provided financial assistance to the institutions working in the field of judicial reforms. Does it mean that this year there will be no financial assistance to such institutions engaged in judicial reforms?

 

3. Designing Innovative Solutions for Holistic Access to Justice in India (DISHA) - 

Though the budgetary allocation for ‘Action Research and Studies on Judicial Reforms’ is absent, DISHA is a new head under which new expenditure would be done. DISHA would provide provisioning for Tele Law, Nyaya Bandhu and Nyaya Mitra and setting up of special courts for MPs/MLAs. The budgetary allocation for DISHA for 2021-22 is ₹40 Crores. I am quite disappointed here. Financial assistance to institutions doing research is very important for long term development of law and legal sector. Though DISHA seems to be innovative at first blush, what it really seeks to provide remains to be seen.

 

4. e-Courts Phase II - According to the revised estimates of 2020-21, the budget allocation was ₹180 Crores. For the year 2021-22, the same is a meagre sum of ₹98.82 Crores. This is around 50-55% of the earlier year. Here also, I am quite disappointed. There is so much emphasis on e-Courts for justice delivery right now but decrease in budget allocation would mean that the infrastructure and the facilities required for development of electronic Courts and justice delivery would take place at an impeded pace.

 

5. Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies (ICPS) – This is a new addition that was not present in the earlier budgets or schemes. Its budgetary allocation for 2021-22 is ₹1.50 Crores.

 

6. Fast Track Courts – Its budgetary allocation has been increased from ₹160 Crores for the revised 2020-21 year to ₹200 Crores for the budget 2021-22. Fast Track Courts seem to be a priority for the government, and I hope that it contributes to the reduction in the pending cases all over India.

 

7. Organs of Elections – This includes grants/loans/transfers relating to Lok Sabha Elections, Identity Card to Voters and other election expenses. It certainly has some interesting figures. The actual allocation for 2019-20 was ₹1378.48 Crores and revised figures for 2020-21 are just ₹68.50 Crores. For the budget 2021-22, the allocation is ₹164.30 Crores. I wonder what the reason for such mismatch and manyfold decease is. Does it mean that the financial autonomy of the Electoral agencies and programs is under a severe stress?

 

8. EVMs for Election Commission – This too has some interesting figures. The actual allocation for 2019-20 was just ₹24.97 Crores and revised figures for 2020-21 increased this to ₹155 Crores. However, for the budget 2021-22, there is whopping five-fold increase (slightly more) and the allocation is ₹1005.00 Crores. Thus, on EVMs alone, more than 1000 crores would be expended. I am certainly curious to know the reason for this.

 

9. Overall Figures – The overall figures regarding the budget allocation with respect to Ministry of Law and Justice for the Budget 2021-22 is ₹2645.82 Crores. The actual allocation for 2019-20 was ₹3081.33 Crores and the revised figures for 2020-21 was ₹1608.46 Crores. Thus, the overall allocation is nowhere close to pre-COVID-19 levels and one could only hope that it might take 1-2 years more to come to that level.

 

 You can read the actual document by clicking here.