‘It’s denial of justice, need a Bombay HC bench at Kolhapur’ – mid-day.com

The much-desired demand of advocates practising in southern Maharashtra, for setting up a circuit bench of Bombay High Court in Kolhapur, once again gained momentum after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray wrote to the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, recently (second week of March), requesting the same.

In his letter, dated March 8, the CM stated, “After the establishment of the Bench of Bombay High Court at Aurangabad in the year 1984, there has been consistent demand for establishing the Bench of the Bombay High Court in the southern region of the State of Maharashtra covering the aforementioned districts.”

Six districts of Southern Maharashtra – Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Solapur, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg had been demanding the setting up of the circuit bench of the Bombay High court for the past 35 years. A delegation of 50 practising advocates and members of the Bombay High Court Bench Action Committee of six districts also had met Chief Justice of Bombay High Court Dipankar Datta and apprised him about the same. The people’s representatives from these districts would meet the Chief Justice soon.

Girish Khadake and Jamshed Mistry

Burden on litigants

Advocate Girish Khadake, President Kolhapur District Bar Association and Bombay High Court Bench Action Committee of six districts said, “The litigants and approximately 8,000 lawyers from (six districts), have to come to Bombay High Court, in Mumbai, for filing any appeal in case of civil, criminal and for filing writ petitions, including bail applications. This is not only time consuming but also is an additional financial burden on litigants. The distance from the districts and talukas under these districts from the principal seat at Mumbai ranges from 300 km to 500 km, which is more than the distance for which the Aurangabad bench was established back in 1984. Moreover, nearly 25 per cent of the cases at the Principal seat of Bombay High Court are from the Kolhapur region.”

Advocates support cause

“If the bench is set up at Kolhapur, it would reduce the burden on the Principal Bench at Mumbai. The vacancies of HC judges will also be filled on time. During the last 8-9 years, the High Court of Bombay has never worked to its full sanctioned strength as there are no regular appointments to fill in the vacancies. Speedy justice, which is a fundamental right under the Constitution, will become a reality if the Bench is set up at Kolhapur,” said Advocate Rajeshwar Panchal, who practices in the HC.

Advocate Dinesh Tiwari said, “If the High Court bench is started in Kolhapur, it will serve justice to many people who would be able to save cost and time as they wont be required to visit Mumbai. As of now more than 3 crore cases are pending in Maharashtra while the number of judicial officers is around 20,000, which is too small to conduct three crore matters.”

Advocate Jamshed Mistry, who also practices in the HC, said, “Setting up an additional bench in Kolhapur would be a step in the right direction. It is known that the judiciary is overburdened and would require all possible assistance in terms of setting up infrastructure, in terms of setting up new courts, especially the lower courts and tribunals, to meet the current backlog and increase in the number of cases filed. Therefore, current judicial vacancies need to be filled in at the earliest, for speedy justice.”

Solicitor Stuti Galiya, said, “From an administrative convenience perspective and to reduce the burden on the High Court, the need of the hour is to constitute additional benches. Today, there are millions of cases pending before various courts in India. Many of such cases are pending for more than 10 years, which results in the common man getting exhausted with the snail-paced justice system in the country.”

8 March
Date when CM Uddhav Thackeray wrote to the Chief Justice of Bombay HC urging to establish a bench at Kolhapur