One really wonders time and again as to why Centre has so fiercely opposed even a single more High Court Bench in last 77 years in any nook and corner of Uttar Pradesh at any city other than Lucknow known famously as Nawab City where it was just not needed at all as it is so close to Allahabad itself where High Court is located and where it was created way back in 1948 itself less than a year after independence in July! That’s all! After that we see no High Court Bench was created in last 77 years.
It must be asked: Does Centre want a difference of at least 100 years between the Bench in Lucknow in Eastern UP and a Bench at any place in Western UP whose population is alone more than 10 crore and more than half of the pending cases are from West UP? Is Centre waiting for 2048 to create a Bench in West UP? Can it be justified from any angle that the litigants of 30 districts of West UP have been attached not even till Lucknow which falls more than 230 km earlier but right uptill Allahabad to seek justice? Can on earth there be anything more shameful than this?
In no way can Centre wash away the unpalatable truth which is so demoralizing, disgusting, degrading and disastrous that Uttar Pradesh which has maximum population among all the States more than 25 crores which is more than the population of 16 small States put together and so also maximum pending cases more than 10 lakhs in High Courts and about one crore cases in lower courts and here too more than half of the pending cases are from West UP and still has just one Bench only and both High Court and a single Bench are in Eastern UP alone and that too just at a distance of about 230 km only even though in 1981 it was agreed that the distance between High Court and bench should not be less than 300 km! It is high time and Centre must move beyond the myopic view that only Eastern UP alone is fit for both High Court and Bench and not any other region which according to Centre are legally worthless just not fit to be given a Bench! Why is Centre most disinterested on such a sensitive issue which directly impacts population of more than 10 crore people of West UP?
It is high time and Centre must move beyond the myopic view that only Eastern UP alone is fit for both High Court and Bench and not any other region which really baffles me most! Why so much of opacity in creation of High Court Benches? Why no transparency? That is the nub of the problem!
It merits no reiteration that Centre must take a clear stand on it and not indulge in frequent flip-flop over it as we have been seeing since last more than 77 years! Viewed in this light, it can be easily surmised that Centre has been most deadly biased in favouring only one particular region in regard to setting up of a Bench which is most unfortunate and must be strongly and roundly condemned! I have just no inkling as to why Centre has been so deadly biased on this without any logic in this blatant, brazen and blind discrimination against West UP and other regions.
Why we see that a peaceful State like Maharashtra which tops in the State list of Justice Index Ranking has maximum High Court Benches and Uttar Pradesh just one and West UP which owes for more than half of the total number of pending cases has none? If this is not making an open mockery of Article 14 of the Constitution then what else is? Why our Judges never hold Centre accountable for it?
As if this was not enough, when former PM Mrs Indira Gandhi had appointed Justice Jaswant Singh Commission which was headed by former Supreme Court Judge – Justice Jaswant Singh who was also the former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court to look into where all High Court Benches should be created and it recommended maximum 3 High Court Benches for undivided UP – one at Agra and 2 circuit benches at Nainital and Dehradun but Centre most stupidly, most shamelessly and most senselessly decided not to create even a single High Court Bench for UP anywhere even though it happily created a High Court Bench at Aurangabad in Maharashtra which already had two High Court Benches at Nagpur and Panaji, and so also Benches were created at Madurai in Tamil Nadu and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal for just 6 districts which already had Bench at Port Blair for just 3 lakh people! Why we witnessed Supreme Court kept watching everything like a helpless spectator? Why the people of hilly areas had to travel foolishly all the way more than thousand kilometers all the way to Allahabad as all the districts were attached with Allahabad and not with Lucknow which was still closer even though not so close? How disgraceful! How can judiciary and that too Apex Court so callously watch everything just like a mute spectator? It could have taken suo motu notice just like it did after the Lakhimpur Kheri incident and now in Manipur but it has never done till now! I still hope fervently!
Why the High Court and Benches of 8 states and above all even Lahore high court in Pakistan is nearer to West UP as compared to Allahabad? It was to protest this raw step motherly treatment that the lawyers of West UP went on one month hunger strike in 1978! In 1985-86 the lawyers did many Padyatras also demanding Bench! Again the lawyers of West UP were compelled to go on strike for full 6 months from July to December 2001 demanding the creation of a High Court Bench in West UP yet no action taken? Can anyone in Centre even dream as to how the lawyers managed to strike for so long thereby depriving themselves from their only source of livelihood for full 6 months and how they struggled to meet their daily end yet no bench created?
Even in 2014-15, the lawyers of West UP went on strike for about 5 months and even boycotted Lok Adalats and protested whole night outside the court but again Centre just gave empty assurances but nothing materialized on ground! Even in 2009, the lawyers of West UP went on strike and even called a bandh in whole of West UP to protest the decision to not create a single bench here and went on strike many times! Even in 2010, the lawyers of West UP went on strike for a month demanding Bench. Yet we find that Centre just glosses over everything maintaining a stoic conspiratorial silence and our Judges also have never cared to address it which is so shocking that cannot be described in words!
I am extremely devastated to see how Centre has so contemptuously kicked aside the legitimate claim for a High Court Bench in West UP in last 77 years of independence while allowing creation of a Bench in 1948 itself so close to Allahabad and yet not one Chief Justice from Allahabad High Court or a Supreme Court Judge ever spoke out against it! My eyes well up in tears to see how shamelessly, senselessly and stupidly Centre has always been most adamant in denying not just West UP but all regions of UP except Eastern UP even a single High Court Bench! Why States with less population, less pending cases and less crime rate have multiple Benches like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal among others?
The most ticklish question to consider here is: Why other states where pending cases in High Courts didn’t exceed even one lakh were given more Benches and which already had Benches like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Assam among others but UP was not given even a single more Bench after 1948? Why UP has more than 10 lakh pending cases in High Court and nearly one crore cases in lower courts which is more than half of the states cases put together and still it has just one High Court Bench and that too so close to Allahabad?
Why Centre has most contemptuously refused to create even a single High Court Bench in any nook and corner of UP including at West UP which has 30 districts? Why so many former PMs like Atal Bihari Vajpayee who raised the demand for a Bench for West UP at Meerut right inside Parliament in 1986, Mrs Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Dr Manmohan Singh among others had all appreciated the dire need for a High Court Bench in West UP yet not even a single was created anywhere in UP? Why another lawless state Bihar has not even a single High Court Bench? Why so many UP CM like Dr Sampoornanand, ND Tiwari, Rajnath Singh supported the demand for Bench in West UP still none?
Let me say this with a sense of responsibility: Centre is definitely complicit in doing its best to ensure that open partiality is done by approving one more Bench for States like Maharashtra which already had multiple High Court Benches and we see that for Uttar Pradesh for which maximum three were recommended not one was allowed to be created! Denying even a single Bench to West UP is an out and out cheating with the more than 10 crore people living here for which Centre is definitely fully culpable and this open cheating cannot be ever condoned under any circumstances! The reasons forwarded for denying a Bench in West UP are absolutely freakish!
One still hopes that there is a modicum of realization in Centre that a High Court Bench in West UP is the crying need of the hour and its denial has compelled the litigants to travel whole night and half day in just travelling alone all the way not even till Lucknow but right uptill Allahabad to seek justice! Denial of a Bench has an adverse and devastating impact on the litigants which culminates in dooming the very justice delivery system of the country which alone explains why the 230th Report of the Law Commission of India very strongly recommended the creation of more High Court Benches but 14 years down the lane, it still lies unimplemented! Why has Centre so completely messed up in UP by not allowing even a single High Court Bench in whole of UP other than at Lucknow?
Still more loathsome is to see how Centre has most contemptuously snubbed the more than 75 years old demand for a Bench in West UP! Why is it that only for southern States like Karnataka we see multiple High Court Benches being created at a lightening speed as in 2008 we saw for just 4 and 8 districts at Dharwad and Gulbarga two Benches were created so promptly? Why the same promptness is never shown for Uttar Pradesh where lawyers are agitating since so many decades yet no Bench created since 1948 till now and so also in Bihar where there is not even a single Bench and Rajasthan where there is again just one Bench at Jaipur only?
Sanjeev Sirohi
