Judicial infrastructure development in India suffers from a Centre-state coordination problem despite Centrally Sponsored Schemes. Discuss.

Access to justice under Articles 21 and 39A depends on courtrooms as much as on judges. Yet despite a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) running since 1993-94, court infrastructure remains uneven — because the CSS design splits money from execution between two levels of government.

The scheme framework

• CSS for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for District and Subordinate Courts covers court halls, residential units for judicial officers, lawyers' halls, toilet complexes and digital computer rooms — the last three added in 2021 [1].
• Continued for five years from 01.04.2021 at an outlay of ₹9,000 crore, of which the Central share is ₹5,307 crore [1] — the balance rests on state contribution.
• Union Budget 2026 allocated ₹810 crore for this CSS and ₹1,200 crore for eCourts Phase-III [2].

Where coordination breaks down

• Split responsibility: primary responsibility for judicial infrastructure rests with State Governments; the Centre only supplements [3]. Land acquisition, tendering and maintenance are state functions, so central releases stall where states lag.
• Matching-share dependence: the fund-sharing pattern means weaker states under-utilise central assistance, widening inter-state disparity.
• Multiple authorities: High Court Level Monitoring Committees chaired by Chief Justices operate alongside the Centre's Central Level Monitoring Committee under Secretary (Justice) [1] — judiciary, state PWD and Union ministry must align.
• Pending institutional fix: the CJI's proposal for a National Judicial Infrastructure Authority of India (NJIAI) was circulated to states for their views and awaits consensus [3].

Countervailing progress

• 6,345 court halls and 4,023 residential units completed till 31.03.2026, with 3,161 halls and 3,245 units under construction [1].
• The Nyaya Vikas portal enables online, geo-tagged monitoring of project progress [1], reducing information asymmetry.
• eCourts Phase-III, a Central Sector Scheme of ₹7,210 crore (Cabinet-approved 2023), bypasses the matching-share problem for digital infrastructure and has set up 1,394 e-Sewa Kendras in district courts [4].

The problem is therefore one of institutional design, not intent. Operationalising NJIAI, linking releases to Nyaya Vikas-verified progress, and extending the fully-Centre-funded model used for eCourts can convert cooperative federalism from a bottleneck into a delivery mechanism for timely justice.