New Delhi: The Central government on Thursday in the Rajya Sabha said 74% of court complexes have separate toilets for women while 26% of court complexes do not have separate toilets for women. Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju replied to the question of whether the courts primarily at the subordinate level are not equipped with safe private spaces and toilets for women lawyers and litigants as the government has witnessed a surge in female lawyers enrolling in LLB and LLM courses. Rijiju replied that "No such data published by the National Institute of Ranking Framework has been made available to the Department of Justice." He also pointed out the fact that "the primary responsibility of the development of infrastructure facilities for the judiciary rests with the State governments."
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To another query on whether the government has been intending to come out with such a policy, Rijiju replied "To augment the resources of the State governments, the Union government has been implementing a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for the development of infrastructure facilities for the judiciary by providing financial assistance to State governments /UTs in the prescribed fund-sharing pattern between the Centre and states." The scheme is being implemented since 1993-94 and it has been extended from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with a budgetary outlay of Rs 9,000 crore, including the Central share of Rs 5,307.00 crore, he further added.
