It is truly incomprehensible as to why UPA approved Statehood for Telangana with just 3.5 crore population but did not approve even a single High Court Bench for West UP even though the lawyers of West UP and that too senior lawyers comprising of President and General Secretary of Meerut Bar who leads the Central Action Committee comprising of 22 districts of West UP which was formed in 1981 to relentlessly pursue the sacred agitation for a High Court Bench repeatedly submitted memorandum to the top leaders of the Congress like Ms Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, former PM Dr Manmohan Singh and many others in support of the legitimate and compelling demand for a High Court Bench in West UP? The population of West UP is about 10 crore and still not even a single High Court Bench is being approved here due to which the litigants of 30 districts of West UP are compelled to travel whole night and half day all the way right uptill not even Lucknow which has a High Court Bench and which falls more than 230 km earlier but right uptill Allahabad to seek justice! It was however in the tenure of PM Shri Narendra Modi that Telangana came into existence on June 2, 2014.
I can’t make a head or tail of it as to why Lucknow which is so near to Allahabad has Bench since 1948 and West UP even after 77 years of independence has none and worst of all the litigants of West UP attached not even with Lucknow which falls 230 km earlier but right uptill Allahabad to seek justice? When Centre can amend the penal laws made by Britishers as we saw recently then why can’t Centre also amend the most stupid decision taken by Centre in 1948 to create a single High Court for the most populated State of India at Lucknow only and not a single for Western UP even though more than half of the pending cases are from West UP? How long will Centre keep ducking the all-important Bench issue in West UP?
I have just no doubt in my mind, not even an iota of doubt that denying most mercilessly even a single High Court Bench to West UP and attaching the litigants of West UP not even with Lucknow but right uptill Allahabad is the worst travesty of justice and is the most egregious violation of Article 14 of Constitution which promises right to equality as a fundamental right to all citizens of India! The creation of a Bench in West UP is bound to bring about a paradigm shift in the criminal justice delivery system by making it easily available at doorsteps thus making it more fair, efficient and responsive to the needs of the people. The central problem here is: Centre is just not ready to budge on Bench issue which I find most perplexing. Why can’t Centre be more flexible on setting up of more High Court Benches in UP? Why even e-filing facility which was approved and in Meerut was to start from November 1, 2023 but that also has been given a red signal by the Allahabad High Court? Why a very powerful lobby is allowed to have the last laugh and why the litigants of West UP have to travel whole night and half day right uptill Allahabad to seek justice?
Suffice it to say: Supreme Court which is the last ray of hope for the people must at least now intervene and should have the guts, gall and gumption to differ with the famous old adage that, “Might is right” and should not restrain itself in speaking out most vocally that how can the most populated State of India with maximum pending cases have just one Bench only when other States with far lesser pending cases and lesser population like Maharashtra, Assam, Karnataka, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh can have multiple High Court Benches and here too why West UP which owes for more than half of the total number of pending cases has none? Why the 230th Report of the Law Commission of India prepared by the eminent legal luminary and former Supreme Court Judge late Dr AR Lakshmanan advocating for creation of more High Court Benches has not been uniformly implemented even after 14 years after its historic recommendations having been submitted and why only very few States have multiple High Court Benches even though the crime rate in those States is very low as compared to States like UP and Rajasthan which have just one Bench and lawless Bihar where there is none? This burning issue cannot be kept in the backburner any longer!
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 Statehood itself for Telangana with just 3.5 crore population and on the contrary we see that for West Uttar Pradesh even a single High Court Bench is not being approved as recommended by Justice Jaswant Singh Commission headed by former Supreme Court Judge. Denying even a single High Court 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 for Telangana with just 3.5 crore population was conferred Statehood at a bullet train pace? 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 so also in Rajasthan where there is again just one Bench at Jaipur only? This is the nub of the matter!
Why is it that Centre can make cosmetic changes like changing name associated with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehruji but can never change what? His most stupid decision to create a single High Court Bench for whole of Uttar Pradesh and attaching the litigants of 30 districts of West UP not even with Lucknow but right uptill Allahabad which means more than 230 km away from even Lucknow due to which whole night and half day wasted on just travelling alone and since last 77 years we see no change made in this most absurd decision! Dr Satyapal Singh who is former Mumbai Police Commissioner and former Union Minister and also MP from Baghpat had demanded five High Court Benches for Uttar Pradesh at Meerut, Agra, Jhansi, Varanasi which is the constituency of PM Mr Narendra Modi and at Gorakhpur which is constituency of CM Mr Yogi Adityanath and who himself in Parliament demanded Bench and even brought forth a Private Members Bill then why we see no action taken by Centre on this count? Why Centre has always chosen to ride roughshod over the genuine, compelling and legitimate aspirations for people of different regions of Uttar Pradesh for a High Court Bench like West UP with population of 10 crore and for Telangana Statehood is conferred nearly ten years back for just about 3 or 3.5 crore people? Of course, Centre must now definitely shun this region and State based discrimination which our Constitution is so deadly opposed to yet we most unfortunately witness such raw discrimination being perpetrated on ground most openly with impunity most senselessly!
Sanjeev Sirohi
