Cuttack: A PIL filed in Orissa High Court has sought intervention to ensure "regular functioning" of the family courts in the state.

The petition alleged that "inaction" of the state government and "non-filling" of posts of judges had resulted in "non-functioning" of some of the family courts. High court lawyer Ananga Kumar Ota filed the petition.

A family court is a court of limited jurisdiction that hears cases involving family law. They are governed by the state. Family court judges preside over family courts, where domestic cases - such as those of divorce, child abuse, child custody and neglect - are heard.

There are 29 family courts in the state.

In his petition, Ota alleged that "arbitrary" practice of appointment of family court judges without following prescribed procedure was resulting in non-functioning of a sizeable number of family courts in the state at any given point of time.

There is provision for appointing persons, who has at least seven years' experience as an advocate of a high court or two or more such courts in a succession, as a family court judge. But the state government has limited itself to appointing family court judges from naming judicial officers with seven years or more service, the PIL contends.

The state government has continued with the practice even as it has struggled to get judicial officers with super-time scale of pay for the post. In fact it has scaled down the initial scale of pay prescribed for the family court judge post to accommodate judicial officers, who have not been eligible to get the super time scale of pay.