It is most disgusting, most despicable, most disastrous and most degrading that Centre under the leadership of first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru decided to create only one High Court Bench for the whole of Uttar Pradesh at only one place named Lucknow on July 1, 1948 which is just 200 km away from Allahabad where High Court itself is located and at no other place! What is worst is that the people of hilly areas of undivided Uttar Pradesh were attached with not Lucknow but with Allahabad which meant that they had to travel more than thousand kilometers all the way to just seek justice! So it was but natural that the resentment of the people living in hilly areas grew by leaps and bounds as time passed by.
We then saw how Justice Jaswant Singh Commission headed by none other than a former Supreme Court Judge – Justice Jaswant Singh appointed by Centre itself when Mrs Indira Gandhi was PM to look into where all High Court Benches were needed recommended them to be created at Aurangabad in Maharashtra which was promptly created in 1985 even though it had multiple Benches at Nagpur and Panaji and similarly it recommended Bench for just 6 districts at Jalpaiguri in West Bengal which had a Bench at Port Blair for just 3 lakh people which was again created soon and so also a Bench was created at Madurai in Tamil Nadu which was again created promptly. The worst part is: It recommended three High Court Benches for undivided UP and yet Centre most despotically and most disastrously did not allow even a single High Court Bench to come up anywhere! To add insult to injury, our Apex Court maintained a deafening silence for which it cannot be ever exonerated and it should have spoken up against this open mockery of Article 14 of Constitution which guarantees fundamental right of equality to all citizens of India!
If there is one thing on earth that the incumbent CJI Dr DY Chandrachud must be certainly most ashamed of is that his native State that is Maharashtra which tops in Justice Index Ranking State List has maximum High Court Benches and UP termed by former UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon as “rape and crime capital of India” where he had been Chief Justice for nearly three years as he himself concedes has least Benches in India and West UP which owes for more than half of the total pending cases of UP was even conceded by Justice Jaswant Singh Commission has not even a single Bench as both High Court and a single Bench in UP are within a radius of 200 km meaning very close to each other and the people of West UP of 30 districts have to travel not just till Lucknow which is 200 km earlier but far away till Allahabad itself to seek justice! This is the worst absurdity on earth that cannot be ever justified. Senior advocate Arvind Datar himself just recently informed that the Bench Committee report of 1981 prescribes at least a distance of 300 km between High Court Benches. But see what a sham done in UP by creating a Bench so close to High Court itself!
The moot question is: What was the dire necessity that compelled the setting up of a Bench at Lucknow only which is just 200 km away from Allahabad and at no other place in West UP or in Bundelkhand or in Purvanchal or in hilly areas now a separate State since 2000 termed Uttarakhand due to which people of hilly areas had to travel thousands of kilometers all the way not just till Lucknow but right up to Allahabad to seek justice? The lesser one says about the most arbitrary, most whimsical and most ridiculous decision on earth to create a single High Court Bench for whole of UP at only Lucknow just 200 km away from Allahabad where High Court itself is located and that too way back on July 1 in 1948 and nowhere else till now, the better it shall be. Both the Centre and so also the Supreme Court are certainly responsible for turning a blind eye to the endless sufferings faced by people of hilly areas of undivided UP and West UP for more than 53 years and made a complete mockery of Article 14 of Constitution with all top lawyers of Supreme Court maintaining a deafening silence on it! Where was Supreme Court sleeping all this while?
What is even more worst is that when the Justice Jaswant Singh Commission appointed by Centre itself in mid 1970s recommended not one not two but three High Court Benches for undivided UP, not one Bench was allowed to come up due to which people of hilly areas started agitating for separate High Court Bench and ultimately Centre in November 2000 gave High Court itself to those hilly areas now termed Uttarakhand for which it was not prepared to concede even a single High Court Bench! As long as it formed part of UP, Centre ensured that not a single High Court Bench was created either at Dehradun or at Nainital where Justice Jaswant Singh Commission had recommended High Court Benches to be created! Similarly for West UP it recommended a High Court Bench which has not been created till now even after 75 years of independence! Why Apex Court never said a word on it is beyond comprehension?
It must be disclosed here that very few know that the demand for a High Court Bench in West UP is so old that it must be mentioned even in Guinness Book of World Record! I and my dear and learned friend Naeem Raja who is Senior Public Prosecutor in CBI are on same page that, “If people of West UP start agitating for statehood like those in Uttarakhand did then this same Centre will come forward and proudly offer High Court itself as it gave to Uttarakhand.” If High Court Bench had been created in time, the people would not have agitated so hard and Uttarakhand still would have been part of UP!
Can on earth there be anything more worse than this which depicts Centre in most poor light who displays double hypocritical standards of the worst kind? What is even most degrading is that the Apex Court too has done just nothing, nothing and nothing at all on this since such a long time of more than 75 years and has only watched everything like a mute spectator who has no power to take any action in this regard to put an end to this worst discrimination on earth! What Apex Court and CJI tends to gloss over is this: “No injustice can ever be treated as justice just because it has been perpetrated for a very long period of time!” Why Apex Court always tends to gloss over that lawless State Bihar with criminals ruling the roost has not even a single High Court Bench?
How can CJI or Apex Court be so nonchalant to the endless sufferings faced by poor people who have no access to technology and have to go all the way till Allahabad to seek justice? But all CJI from 1947 till 2022 have most shockingly sought to justify it on one pretext or the other by perpetrating the status quo since July 1, 1948 when a single High Court Bench was created at Lucknow! This is what I find most atrocious!
Why Pandit Nehru’s penchant to have a Bench only at Lucknow in Eastern UP alone where High Court itself is located at Allahabad is continuing to rule the roost in UP till now even after more than 75 years of independence? Why Maharashtra has multiple High Court Benches even though it is UP which tops the State’s list in having maximum pending cases? Does Maharashtra from where CJI Justice Dr DY Chandrachud hails stand above Constitution and above Article 14 which guarantees right to equality as a fundamental right to all citizens that Centre most senselessly decided to allot maximum High Court Benches to it instead of UP where there is just one even though it is UP which has maximum pending cases in India among all States and still has just one Bench only so close to Allahabad at Lucknow only? Why lawless Bihar has not even a single High Court Bench?
It must be definitely also asked: Why so much of partiality in allotting of High Court Benches to different States has been tolerated so meekly by the Apex Court without uttering even a single word on this since last 75 years that certainly cannot be ever forgiven or forgotten because this is the “biggest trampling of justice and equality” by none other than Centre with Supreme Court also doing just nothing on it thus openly abetting Centre to do what it wants to do on this? Supreme Court has definitely most grievously erred in not doing anything in ensuring that Allahabad High Court has maximum Benches and not most strangely minimum! This is the biggest and darkest stain on it!
There can be no “ifs” and there can be no “buts”. There can be no “may” and there can be no “could”. The one and the only course of action is to create a High Court Bench at the earliest. I am most astounded that how Supreme Court can behave so nonchalantly on such a sensitive issue that has been lingering since last 75 years! Just talking about right to equality in seminars and meetings that is guaranteed to all citizens of India under Article 14 of Constitution but doing just nothing to ensure that it being uniformly implemented will certainly exacerbate discrimination, discontent and distrust among people living in different places!
A High Court Bench is the best ray of hope, harmony and healing for the “poorest of poor” of more than 10 crore people of West UP. We need to therefore all join hands together to shape a new paradigm – of human centric Bench and not place centric Bench as we see in UP where both High Court at Allahabad and only a single Bench at Lucknow both within 200 km range in Eastern UP leaving the rest of UP high and dry! Those who argue that now High Court Bench not required as we are going paperless, I dare say: Abolish all the High Court Benches in India uniformly if this is the case!
But this the powerful vested groups will never allow to happen as they know that how much utility a High Court Bench has which directly affects the lives of so many people in so many districts which fall within their jurisdiction and who are not tech savvy! There can be no gainsaying the irrefutable fact that the best path of citizen centric governance model which takes care of even most marginalized citizens is to create more High Court Benches as was recommended also so brilliantly by the 230th report of the Law Commission of India which will benefit the “poorest of the poor” and not by just creating international airports one after the other which will benefit mainly the “richest of the rich” for travelling purposes in connection with their business or other purposes! Why does our Government in Centre not realize this basic fact?
It is high time and Centre must catalyse a fundamental mindset shift while taking into consideration the most landmark recommendations made by the Law Commission of India in its 230th Report nearly 14 years back on creation of more High Court Benches but which is still lying abandoned in cold storage which certainly cannot be justified under any circumstances! Centre must always ask itself: Is it fair that UP which has maximum pending cases has minimum Benches just one and West UP which owes for more than half of pending cases has none? Supreme Court and so also Centre must realize that Uttar Pradesh is definitely not Odisha that the 75 year old most legitimate demand for a High Court Bench which was recommended also by Justice Jaswant Singh Commission for West UP can be ever brushed aside most lightly!
It must be noted that the pending number of cases of UP as on 5.12.2022 at Allahabad High Court is 1002880 with 542336 being civil cases and 460544 being criminal cases. On the other hand, the pending cases of Odisha High Court is just 1,61,009 with 119240 being civil cases and 41769 being criminal cases. This is just no patch to UP! So Odisha cannot be ever equated with UP and West UP’s dire need for Bench cannot be just rubbished by anyone for which lawyers of West UP have been relentlessly struggling most peacefully in a democratic manner when I who am nearing 50 years old was not even born! Just like Allahabad High Court has maximum Judges at 160 similarly it also must definitely have maximum High Court Benches and definitely not minimum as most shamefully we see right now in UP!
Parvez Alam