It is no trifling matter that on record it is Uttar Pradesh (UP) which tops in having the maximum number of pending cases and not Maharashtra! Yet you see the crowning unbeatable irony that Maharashtra has maximum High Court Benches which also tops in latest Justice Index Ranking List and UP has minimum Benches only one at Lucknow also in Eastern UP just 200 km away from Allahabad and nowhere else! Why Supreme Court and Centre always feel proud of this and term it as being done in the best interest of justice it was decided that Maharashtra will have maximum High Court Benches, UP minimum and as if this was not enough, to top it all, West UP which owes for more than half of total pending cases of UP and so also lawless Bihar for which even Union Ministers label as “Open Jungle Raj” has none?
The troubling question that most often niggles my mind constantly is: What best purpose is served in the interest of justice in doing so that UP has minimum Benches and West UP none? I find it most incomprehensible and senseless! Both Centre and Supreme Court have really in the true sense failed our Constitution which does not believe in discrimination of any kind by advocating most strongly that only Eastern UP is suited best for capital, High Court and so also a single High Court Bench created way back in 1948 at Lucknow and all other regions are legally worthless which alone explains why not a single Bench was created even though the Justice Jaswant Singh Commission recommendation to create 3 Benches for undivided UP was not implemented rather put in cold storage even though implemented for States like Maharashtra which already had multiple Benches!
What rankles, ruffles and rattles me most to see is that even now both Supreme Court and so also Centre feel that India must feel most proud that Maharashtra has maximum Benches in India and UP minimum and West UP and Bihar none! Nothing on earth can be more horrible than this! If you ask me, there is not even the slightest of doubt that because of this most foolish decision to create maximum Benches for Maharashtra and minimum for UP and none for West UP perpetrated most shamelessly by Centre has put the litigants of 30 districts of West UP at most unease position which cannot be ever condoned under any circumstances whatsoever!
The best way to slap tightly the “poorest of the poor” is to deadly oppose the setting up of more Benches on the ground that now we are becoming more tech savvy! How many of us even in cities are fully tech savvy? Not many! What to talk about those living in remote areas?
This is the unpalatable truth from which Apex Court definitely cannot turn its face on other side knowing fully well that under what conditions the “poorest of poor” survives! Why is it that the Allahabad High Court is 700 km away from most of the districts of West UP and still residents of West UP have to most senselessly travel such a long distance like donkeys not just till Lucknow where Bench is located but 200 km further away right up till Allahabad to seek justice and attend to their cases which defies logic and betrays our Constitution! This is definitely entirely against the concept of cheap, speedy and accessible justice at doorsteps as envisages in our Constitution itself which stands tallest and even Apex Court holds it in the highest esteem!
It is most reprehensible that despite agreeing in principle by the previous governments, this most legitimate demand of public interest is not being fulfilled due to which it is the more than 10 crore people of 30 districts of West UP especially the litigants and victims of crime who have to bear the maximum brunt because of this. Let me say this on record: Making the “poorest of poor” suffer endlessly in most inhuman manner by making them who were litigants of hilly areas of undivided UP who had to travel thousands of kilometers all the way to Allahabad not even Lucknow which has a Bench since July 1, 1948 and which is 200 km earlier is worse than even corruption because here a victim suffers even after shelling out huge money and this “worst, senseless, stupid and shameless mockery and trampling of justice and Constitution” happened right under the nose of the Centre and the Apex Court who are both most proud that for 53 long years they didn’t take any action of any kind to mitigate the endless sufferings faced by the people of hilly areas especially who in 2000 were given High Court itself due to huge agitation and so also of 30 districts of West UP who even after 75 years are still suffering endlessly and grappling endless discrimination!
To top it all, both the Apex Court and Centre are most proud that the historic recommendations of Justice Jaswant Singh Commission to create 3 more Benches for undivided UP – one at West UP and two in hilly areas at Dehradun and Nainital were thrown straightaway in dustbin and on the contrary, state like Maharashtra which already had multiple Benches at Nagpur and Panaji was given one more as recommended at Aurangabad in 1985 and so also for West Bengal at Jalpaiguri which already had a Bench at Port Blair for just 3 lakh people and so also for Tamil Nadu at Madurai! Centre and so also CJI and all Supreme Court Judges of those times are fully accountable for not speaking up against this “worst insult” of UP which I term as worst than even corruption and for which the Apex Court certainly has not covered itself with glory nor has Centre both of whom are equally guilty of doing just nothing, nothing and nothing on this score and just watching, watching and only watching like a spectator as if nothing wrong was happening right under their very nose and so their complicity in this worst trampling of justice and equality cannot be ever justified or condoned under any circumstances! How can Supreme Court or Centre shut its eyes and pretend as if nothing wrong has ever happened on this score?
It is UP and not Maharashtra or Assam or any other State which should have maximum Benches as it is UP which is the most populated State with maximum number of pending cases and maximum number of Judges both in High Courts and District Courts then why UP has minimum Benches just one and that too so near to Allahabad at Lucknow only in Eastern UP where it was just not required at all! Now see the case of Madhya Pradesh. The capital Bhopal has neither High Court nor Bench. The High Court is at Jabalpur and two High Court Benches at Gwalior and Indore respectively!
The billion dollar question is: Why then was the most stupid decision to create only a single Bench was taken at Lucknow which is so near to Allahabad and at no other place? Which leads one to ask: Why no clear cut criteria convincing by itself laid down anywhere to be uniformly applicable to all States on the vexed issue of establishing High Court Benches in different States of India? India needs a Uniform Bench Code most urgently so that no State is discriminated against as most unfortunately right now or a State like UP which has maximum pending cases must have maximum Benches!
My prima facie observation is that Centre needs to do a lot on this count. Let me indulge in the lingo of today and say I find it “pathologically damaging” that an entire generation believes that the most populated state of India with maximum pending cases should have just one Bench and that too so close to Allahabad at Lucknow only in Eastern UP and nowhere else! Questions abound in the social and mainstream media about Centre’s motive on this key issue!
Perhaps the most enduring legacy of CJI Justice Dr DY Chandrachud’s legacy will be why he could not bring a transformative constitutional vision into the Chief Justice’s court by ordering the creation of High Court Bench in West UP where he had been also Chief Justice of UP to borrow his own words for nearly 3 years and again why inspite of being the CJI for full two years could not create even a single Bench in any nook and corner of India’s most populated State with maximum pending cases leave alone creating one in West UP where it is most desperately needed due to it accounting for more than half of UP’s total pending cases and where this demand lawyers have been raking since ages! There is an eternal question asked especially when peaceful State like Karnataka with just 6 crore population which already has High Court and whose population is 4 crore less than that of West UP at 10 crore and still in 2008 two more Benches were created at Dharwad and Gulbarga for just 4 and 8 districts respectively but not a single Bench for 30 districts of West UP with more than 10 crore population till now as 2023 is about to start!
This is the real rub! This is the real tragedy! This is the real discrimination! This is what makes a complete mockery of our Constitution and Article 14 enshrined in it!
This makes one wonder: Is Article 14 only for just namesake only? If not then why so much of blind discrimination do we see in connection with creation of High Court Benches as I have mentioned of UP and Karnataka or Maharashtra? This must end now once and for all!
How can this be ensured best? By creating more Benches in needy regions like West UP, Bundelkhand and Purvanchal! Both Centre and Apex Court must pause to think about whether it is fair that the most populated State UP with maximum pending cases has least Benches just one and West UP which owes for more than half of UP’s total pending cases has none? If free, frank and fair introspection is done, no prizes for guessing the ostensible answer – UP needs more Benches and West UP needs most and not none as we see most unfortunately right now!
This begs the all-important question: Why can’t Centre and Apex Court decolonize its minds on this that only Eastern UP alone is fit for both High Court and Bench and no other region is suitable for it? This is exactly what constitutes the nub of the senseless deadlock on this key festering issue for more than 75 years!
No doubt, PM Modi is right when he says that he has given red card to hurdles like corruption, nepotism and discrimination in the last 8 years. The only caveat that I would like to attach here is: Why no red card given to nepotism and discrimination on creation of High Court Benches in last 8 years? Why UP since last 75 years has just one Bench? Why not a single Bench added to UP even when a huge army of BJP MPs and Union Ministers and senior leaders like Rajnath Singh, Gen VK Singh, Sanjeev Baliyan and many others have all supported the demand for Bench at one point of time or other and still why Centre is most foolishly dead determined that not a single Bench will be created in any nook and corner of UP where it is most desperately required especially in West UP?
It merits asking: Why Statehood was conferred most promptly to Telangana with just 3.5 crore population in 2014 itself on June 2 on assuming power by PM Narendra Modi for first time but denying even a single Bench leave alone giving High Court to West UP with more than 10 crore population? How can this worst discrimination be ever justified by Centre? How can Centre take the more than 10 crore people of West UP for granted?
It must be asked: Why nepotism and discrimination that was perpetrated in its most stark form by previous governments in Centre pertaining to giving Eastern UP everything and nothing to Western UP, Bundelkhand and Purvanchal not set right in all these years? Has Centre set 2047 as the year when Bench will be created in West UP to mark 100 years of independence to make the event most special? PM must answer this!
How can Centre attempt to disguise the irrefutable fact that only Eastern UP and Eastern UP alone have been endowed with not just capital but also with both High Court and so also a single Bench and worst of all, snubbing openly at the landmark recommendations of creating 3 more Benches in undivided UP and instead created Bench for State for which only one was recommended and which already had multiple Benches like Maharashtra? Why most disciplined, dedicated and determined efforts to create a Bench in West UP by lawyers of 30 districts representing more than 10 crore people of West UP has been proven to be a wild goose chase since last 75 years? Has Centre taken a firm vow like the Bheeshma Pitamah of the legendary epic Mahabharat that it will not allow even a single more Bench in state like UP termed by former UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon as “rape and crime capital of India”?
The larger question is: Why can’t Centre allow even one Bench for West UP or one more Bench for entire UP even after 75 years of independence? This reeks of worst hypocrisy which is mind boggling and has to be condemned fully unless Centre revises its stand in the days to come ahead. Why Centre fails to realize that lawyers at the cost of their own livelihood by striking repeatedly display the highest level of commitment for a Bench and certainly not the highest level of indiscipline as some in media try to wrongly project it?
I would certainly urge and call upon the Hon’ble President Droupadi Murmu who always speaks most vociferously for the most poor, deprived and marginalized to appeal to Centre to agree for a Bench demand in West UP as this will only lay firm roots in further consolidating good governance. She herself recently while pointing to trainee civil servants that anonymity, ability and austerity are the ornaments of a civil servant said good governance is the need of the hour and the lack of it is the root of most of our social and economic problems. President must definitely prevail upon both Centre and CJI that creating more Benches in big States like UP is the cornerstone of good governance and therefore the 230th report of Law Commission of India that was submitted nearly 14 years back must be promptly implemented without any more further delay on one pretext or the other!
Denial of Bench to West UP for 75 long years is the worst injustice not just injustice only. This must be given a permanent goodbye now! Centre and Apex Court must not gloss over the permanent validity of the time-tested dictum that, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Both Apex Court and Centre must never be oblivious of what was held by none other than Apex Court itself in Suganidhi vs P Rajkumar Rep. by Power in Civil Appeal No. 347, 2020 SLP (c) No. 16491, 2019 by a Bench of Hon’ble Mr Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Hon’ble Mr Justice Sanjiv Khanna most clearly that, “It is often said that procedure is the handmaid of justice. Procedural and technical hurdles shall not be allowed to come in the way of the court while doing substantial justice.” So Centre for God sake must stop shelling out lame excuses like consent of Chief Justice needed etc! Justice at doorsteps and speedy justice are the cornerstone of real justice and so Centre must take every appropriate steps to create Bench as is the crying need of the hour also as recommended most ably by 230th report of the Law Commission of India also! Now no more excuses, no more ifs and buts, no more dilly-dallying! Of course, all that is needed now is action and only action at the ground level to create Bench in West UP and other needy regions like in Bundelkhand and Purvanchal so that no one is made to travel whole night and half day all the way most foolishly to Allahabad to seek justice! This is the crying need of the hour also!
Parvez Alam
