No bench of high court for west UP

 When their UPA government can approve two more benches for Karnataka for just four and nine districts at Dharwad and Gulbarga then why can’t they approve even a single bench more for UP under any circumstances? West UP alone has 26 districts which is double the number of the districts for which government has sanctioned two more benches?

I can understand Nagma, the famous film actress pledging her unstinted support for a bench here as she is contesting for a Lok Sabha ticket from Meerut and promising to launch widespread agitation! Needless to say, power is not in her hands but what about Sonia and Rahul? Are they also helpless? Even a lunatic will not believe this and very rightly so because they call the shots in every 

decision making process.

Which state has more pending cases – UP or Karnataka? Still overnight two more benches are created but not a single for UP.  The state of Uttar Pradesh has the maximum population among all states, has maximum districts, has maximum towns, has maximum villages, sends maximum MPs to Parliament and maximum MLAs to Vidhan Sabha, has given maximum PM to India, has maximum constituencies, has maximum poverty, has maximum judges, has maximum pending cases among all states which is nearly half of the pending cases all over India and is also among the top few largest states area wise and yet has least number of benches in India.  It was way back in 1955 that Sampoornanand, the then chief minister of UP strongly recommended the creation of a high court bench in West UP at Meerut but till date not a single bench has been set up. Government has approved Statehood for 10 districts of Telangana with 3.52 crore population but is not prepared to concede even a single bench of high court in any of the 26 districts of West UP with more than nine crore population notwithstanding the fact that people have been demanding the sawme since 1947.

It is West UP which accounts for more than half of the pending cases in UP and is considered the crime capital of UP and yet no bench. The government is announcing high courts for small states like Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura but no one is bothered about West UP which is bigger than all of them and which has more pending cases than all the three states taken together and yet has not even a bench. Similarly Sikkim which has just about 50 pending cases has its own high court but West UP where lakhs of cases are pending has not even a bench or circuit bench.

What can be a bigger injustice for the common man of West UP than the harsh and lamentable fact that the High Courts of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and above all even Lahore High Court are nearer to West UP in comparison to Allahabad High Court but still no bench has been created here. The present chairman of UP Bar Council Ajay Shukla has openly supported the creation of a high court bench in West UP in his personal capacity as also have many other senior lawyers of Allahabad high court and former Judges but still Centre is unrelenting.

On the report of Justice Jaswant Singh Commission a high court bench at Aurangabad in Maharashtra has already been established in 1985 but the people of West UP have been unfairly denied the same despite the fact that this Commission had very strongly recommended creation of three benches here succumbing to unremitting pressure from various powerful quarters! Benches of high court have also been established at Madurai in Tamil Nadu and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal to minimize the inconveniences caused due to lack of it to a common man but for West UP there is none.

It was in 1981 that Central Action Committee was formed for pursuing the sacred goal of a high court bench for West UP but Centre cared a damn. It was from May 1981 that the lawyers also decided to observe every Saturday as strike in support of a bench but no one bothered. In between 1981 and 2001, the lawyers went on strike for several months together but Centre cared a damn!

Lawyers of West UP even started going on strike for two days in a week – Wednesday and Saturday but Centre keeps on ignoring! The chairman of Supreme Court Bar Association Advocate Krishna Mani had very categorically stated that, ‘Only by the creation of a bench of high court in West UP will the people be able to secure justice’ but still the government is not prepared. When for just 1.6 crore people of Delhi, a high court can operate then why can’t a high court bench only be not brought into operation for more than nine crore people of West UP residing in 26 districts who are compelled to travel 700-750 km from one side?