At the very outset, it must be asked: Why is it that no Chief Justice of India (CJI) ever dared to question the most horrendous decision taken by the first Prime Minister named Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to create a High Court Bench so near to Allahabad at Nawab City named Lucknow only in Eastern UP and at no other place in undivided Uttar Pradesh way back on July 19, 1948 when it started functioning? Why is it that no CJI ever dared to question the most horrendous decision to attach the hilly areas of undivided Uttar Pradesh just like 30 districts of West UP with not even Lucknow which falls 200 km earlier but with Allahabad? Does it not make a complete mockery of Article 21 of the Constitution? Why Apex Court demonstrated complete helplessness on it?
As if this was not enough, why is it that when a high powered Commission headed by the former Supreme Court Judge – Justice (Retd) Jaswant Singh appointed by Centre itself in mid 1970s had strongly recommended that three High Court Benches be created in undivided Uttar Pradesh at Dehradun, Nainital and Agra yet not one was created yet CJI said nothing? Why is it that on the recommendations of Justice Jaswant Singh Commission we saw that a High Court Bench was approved at Aurangabad in Maharashtra which started functioning since 1985 even though it had already multiple High Court Benches at Nagpur and Panaji yet CJI said nothing? Why on recommendations again of Justice Jaswant Singh Commission we saw a High Court Bench approved for Jalpaiguri in West Bengal for just 6 districts which already had a Bench for just 3 lakh people at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar islands but not a single more for UP which tops the State list in having maximum pending cases yet CJI again said nothing?
It must also be definitely asked: Why is it that when the historic 230th report of Law Commission of India prepared by eminent experts under Chairmanship of former Supreme Court Judge – Dr AR Lakshmanan recommended creation of more High Court Benches in different States yet CJI said nothing? Why is it that when Centre in a most unfair manner all of a sudden decided to first create 2 circuit benches in Karnataka for just 4 and 8 districts at Dharwad and Gulbarga respectively in 2008 and then as main benches in 2013 without there being any strike by lawyers or any other big agitation and on the contrary deciding most arbitrarily to not approve even a single High Court Bench for West UP as was actually recommended also by the Justice Jaswant Singh Commission for 30 districts of West UP with more than 10 crore population as opposed to just 6 crore population of Karnataka yet CJI did nothing? Why even after 14 years of such landmark recommendations made by the 230th report of Law Commission of India is it still lying unattended and unimplemented?
My simple and straightforward argument precisely is: Is this the way of dismantling inequality? Should we be proud that a peaceful State like Maharashtra which tops in the latest justice index ranking list of States and where women can go alone in night anywhere without any fear as was conceded also by former UP Chief Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale whose native State is Maharashtra while he was UP Chief Justice as opposed to Uttar Pradesh where a women and girl is not safe even with her relatives while listening to an incident of crime against them in national highway in Bulandshahr again in West UP yet neither CJI nor UP Chief Justice does anything to create a Bench in West UP to end the worst discrimination against UP and West UP in particular? My reading of the Constitution certainly does not tell me that equality can be guaranteed and perpetuated only by ensuring always that both the High Court and so also the High Court Bench are only in Eastern UP as Western UP, Bundelkhand and Purvanchal are considered “untouchables” for Bench as we have witnessed since last more than 75 years and here too all districts of West UP are attached again not with Lucknow which is 200 km earlier but right up till Allahabad which is 200 km still further to get justice! Is this is what the Constitution teaches us? Should we really be ever proud of it? Is this is exactly what the learned CJI Dr DY Chandrachud who coincidentally is also from Maharashtra which has multiple High Court Benches should always applaud and be most proud of?
Which State has maximum pending cases? Maharashtra which has 3 Benches and former CM Uddhav Thackeray approved even 4th at Kolhapur for just 6 districts or Assam which has four Benches or Karnataka which has 3 Benches or West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh which have two each or is it UP which has just one Bench? Again the answer is Uttar Pradesh! Which High Court has maximum Judges? Again Uttar Pradesh at 160 much more than the rest! Which part of the State of UP owes for more than half of the total pending cases of UP as was conceded by Justice Jaswant Singh Commission report? Again the answer is West UP which has no Bench inspite of Justice Jaswant Singh Commission recommending the same! Should CJI Dr DY Chandrachud be proud of this? Should he feel proud that just like he did nothing in his nearly 3 years tenure as Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court similarly he should do nothing in his two year tenure as CJI?
One must also ask: Why has Centre and Apex Court and also CJI and PM have blindfolded themselves to presume that no region except “Nawab City” named Lucknow is fit for Bench? It must be said without any reservation that Apex Court is the watchdog of democracy and so how can it keep quiet maintaining a deafening silence to the worst injustice perpetrated on the most populated State of India with impunity so brazenly and openly due to which the litigants of 30 districts of West UP have to waste whole night and half day in travelling alone to get justice? The burden is definitely on the shoulders of the Apex Court to pick up the gauntlet and rise to the occasion by creating a Bench in West UP!
How can Centre be totally oblivious of the irrefutable fact that its own tallest leader and former PM late Atal Bihari Vajpayee was definitely not talking cock when he himself most forcefully raise the demand to create a Bench of High Court for West UP in Meerut in 1986 right inside Parliament as leader of Opposition? It needs no rocket scientist to conclude that if a Bench had been created well in time perhaps Uttarakhand would certainly never have been partitioned and PM Narendra Damodardas Modi who ensured that Telangana was conferred Statehood with population of just 3.5 crore when he was PM in his initial period in first term on June 2, 2014 thus allowing separate High Court itself but most lamentably for West UP with population of more than 10 crore not even a Bench is being conceded!
There can be no two views that just like the CJI has rejected the elite notion that only educated should have the right to vote similarly he must also reject the elite notion that only Eastern UP is alone fit to have High Court and Bench and no other region like West UP or Bundelkhand or Purvanchal is fit to have even a single Bench! Why the incumbent CM Yogi Adityanath himself most vociferously raised the demand for a High Court Bench while he was MP in 1999 from Gorakhpur? Why in 2015 the CM Yogi again not just raised the issue but also initiated a private members bill in this regard? There is a galaxy of such eminent leaders who have supported the demand for Bench from time to time still neither CJI nor Centre has failed to do anything on this score!
There can be no two views that CJI must rise to the occasion and speak forthrightly in support of creating a High Court Bench in West UP so that no litigant is made to travel whole night and half day most stupidly all the way till Allahabad just to attend court hearings! Fortunately we have a very bold, balanced and dynamic CJI who has the distinct reputation to always speak for justice and fairplay when and where required! Centre too must reflect, rethink and reapply itself in breaking the most dubious record of UP of having just one Bench only and must remember always that ex CJI Ranjan Gogoi had himself while listening to a PIL filed by women lawyer KR Chitra when he was CJI in November 2018 left the ball of decision making on High Court Bench in West UP on Centre while conceding that litigants face great difficulties in travelling whole night and half day right till Allahabad to get justice. But as Centre is showing no signs of acting anytime soon, the CJI Dr Justice DY Chandrachud must invoke Article 142 of the Constitution and suo motu act and order Centre to act promptly in this direction so that the “poorest of poor” don’t have to spend their precious money needlessly! No denying it!
Parvez Alam