Let me begin with a disclaimer: While it is absolutely true that I always personally hold the incumbent CJI Dr Dhananjay Yashwant Chandrachud on the highest pedestal but I must clarify that I have neither met him in person nor I have never been personally associated with him either as a junior or in any other capacity. I always make it a point to read his judgments in their entirety and find them to be most enlightening and so also while listening to him I just forget everything else. In his enlightening editorial titled “Judges will instill confidence when their actions are uninfluenced by social, political pressure, free of bias”, the CJI very rightly points out that, “Third, while a transparent judicial process is the hallmark of a good justice delivery system, it is equally important to impart quality justice to gain citizens confidence and enhance the social legitimacy of courts. Social legitimacy can only be secured when courts establish themselves as robust and independent institutions, judicial conduct inside and outside the courts has never been as important as it is today, in the age of social media, where every expression of a judge is dissected. The conduct of judges will instill confidence when their actions are uninfluenced by social and political pressure, and from the inherent biases that we all hold as human beings. Identification of human bias is the first step in preventing its incursion in judicial decision-making. Efforts are being made from within the institution to educate and sensitise judges across courts to unlearn their subconscious attitudes inculcated by social conditioning on gender, sexuality and caste.”
It is a matter of national disgrace that UP which keeps capturing the limelight for reasons of crime of all kinds and all the wrong reasons even though it is an irrefutable fact that under the leadership of the incumbent CM Yogi Adityanath UP has progressed by leaps and bounds which one certainly cannot deny but why is it that it has just one High Court Bench only and that too just approximately 230 km away at the city famously called “Nawab City” in other words – Lucknow? Why is it that the people of “Nawab City” can’t travel just about 230 km to Allahabad where High Court is located and High Court Bench was created for them and adjoining 12 districts on July 1, 1948 but not anywhere else due to which from the more than 10 crore of people those who are litigants have to travel whole night and half day all the way not even till Lucknow but right uptill Allahabad to seek justice? If Lucknow is capital then so also Bhopal is capital of Madhya Pradesh but it has neither High Court nor Bench! Similarly, Dispur is capital of Assam but it has neither High Court nor Bench, Dehradun is capital of Uttarakhand but it has no Bench or High Court and so is the case in many other States like Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Kerala etc! This worst injustice happened right under the nose of Supreme Court for more than 77 years yet it has just watched everything like a hapless, helpless, hopeless and blind spectator!
Why our Judges tend to gloss over the irrefutable fact that it is Uttar Pradesh which has maximum pending cases among all the States and its population at 25 crores is more than 16 small States put together and yet has just one High Court Bench only and that too so close to Allahabad and nowhere else and the litigants of 30 districts of West UP attached not even with Lucknow but most foolishly right uptill Allahabad to seek justice? 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? Why the lawyers of West UP were compelled to go on strike for 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 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!
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 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 and present Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had demanded a High Court Bench for Gorakhpur in Parliament in 1998 as he was MP from Gorakhpur then yet not even a single Bench created till now?
It also needs to be asked: Why Centre from 1955-2023 repeatedly took memorandums from the lawyers of West UP demanding very rightly the creation of a High Court Bench and assured them repeatedly while also labelling it as a justified demand but when it came to setting up of a Bench decided to most brashly ignore the legitimate claims of West UP as also Bundelkhand among other needy regions of UP and most ruthlessly instead gave green signal for creation of two more High Court circuit Benches by the UPA government in 2008 at Dharwad and Gulbarga for just 4 and 8 districts which in 2013 were made main Benches in Karnataka which has just 6 crore population which is less than West UP alone which has 10 crore population? Why was it ignored by Centre that Allahabad High Court is the largest court not just in India but whole of world as was recently conceded also by PM Shri Narendra Modi and the members in Bar Council are also highest in world and is also one of the oldest High Courts in India along with Calcutta, Bombay and Madras yet has just one High Court Bench which is one of the worst stupidities and worst discrimination perpetrated since last 77 years that has not been rectified from 1947 till now in 2023? Why UP has maximum Judges both in High Courts as also in the lower courts among all the states yet has just one Bench? Why is it that we see UP has maximum districts 75, maximum constituencies 80, maximum MPs in Lok Sabha 80, maximum MPs in Rajya Sabha 31, maximum MLAs in Vidhan Sabha 404, maximum MLAs in Vidhan Parishad 100, maximum villages more than a whooping one lakh, maximum pending cases more than 10 lakhs in lower courts and one crore in lower courts, maximum Judges in High Court – 160 and so also in lower courts, maximum custodial deaths, maximum dowry deaths and what not yet has just one Bench? Why no attempt has been ever made to create more Benches?
To top it all: Why most shamelessly has Centre ignored that lawyers of West UP repeatedly went on strike for months and months together since last many decades as was seen in the one month hunger strike in 1978? Why even the six months old strike by lawyers of 30 districts of West UP as was done in 2001 from July to December and so also five months strike as was done in 2014-15, two months as was done in 2010 and one month as was done in 2009 apart from the so many strikes every Saturday without break for more than 42 years since May 1981 till August 2023 apart from the so many strikes that we keep witnessing when some lawyer is killed by criminal or some other cause renewing the age old demand for a high court bench in West UP as we saw when lawyers all across UP observed “protest day” to register protest again st increasing killing of lawyers? Why nothing fails to shake Centre in taking any concrete step for creating a high court bench in West UP?
In sum, it is high time and the CJI Dr DY Chandrachud must step in and ensure that UP gets its due of having maximum High Court Benches and not his home State Maharashtra which tops in the latest justice index ranking list yet has multiple High Court Benches! Getting justice in time proves elusive for the litigants of 30 districts of West UP as Centre is just not prepared to create a single High Court Bench anywhere in Uttar Pradesh on one pretext or the other! I have just no doubt in my mind that denying most mercilessly even a single Bench not just to West UP but any part of UP is the worst travesty of justice and it is happening right under the nose of the CJI and so he definitely cannot feign ignorance as he has been Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court for about 3 years as he candidly concedes! I fervently still hope that he takes suo motu notice on this and orders Bench most promptly!
Sanjeev Sirohi
