The Supreme Court Thursday pulled up the Delhi government for dragging its feet on providing infrastructure support in the form of new courtrooms, which will be needed when 201 existing vacancies for the posts of civil judges are filled. The court said that space should be taken on rent for the purpose if needed.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi took strong exception to submissions by senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who, on behalf of the Delhi government, cited fund shortage and said the state was dependent on the Centre for funds. “Then we will record that the state is saying it is unable to provide funds for new courts,” the bench, which also comprised Justice S K Kaul, observed.

To which, Dave responded that he only said the state would not be able to do it alone. Justice Kaul said: “For Delhi infrastructure, money can never be a problem”, adding “we created quality infrastructure for Delhi”. Perusing a report which said that 167 new court rooms will come up in the existing court complexes by 2020-21, the bench asked the state’s additional chief secretary: “Are you saying on behalf of the Delhi government that we must keep our courts vacant for three years?”