The orders were given by a bench of Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice Ranjana Desai last week while hearing a public interest petition filed by the United Labour Union. The petitioners through their lawyer, Indrajit Kulkarni, had claimed the absence of state conveyance for labour and industrial court judges often led to the latter depending on private parties for their arrivals and departures. Most private parties are litigants themselves, which might hamper the clause of impartiality on the cases to be heard by the judges, it was argued.

The petitioners had also asked for a library in all these courts, which is a statutory requirement. The petitioners had also demanded the state frame rules for appointment of judges in these courts and had prayed that these courts too come under thejurisdiction of Bombay High Court, under Article 234 of the Constitution.

Assistant government pleader Vikram Pai informed the bench it would be hard to get the requisite number of cars under the present budget and only 11 cars can be made available out of 21, that too, from the supplementary demands of the state that will have to be approved in the coming Assembly session. The other 10 cars will have to wait till the next budget.

Similarly, the government claimed the total outlay for libraries in these courts statewide would come to Rs 15.54 lakh, while the state can now make arrangements for Rs two lakh.

But as far as the demand for rules for appointment was concerned, the state government said the rules had already been framed and gazetted. Henceforth, while judges will have to be appointed through MPSC, the appointments will be approved by HC itself. With this, all cooperative, industrial and labour courts have come under the jurisdiction of the HC. The only courts remaining are consumer courts,though a petition in this regard is still pending with High Court.