Meerut protests highlight the urgent need for a High Court bench in Western Uttar Pradesh
Justice Markandey Katju argues that a bench of the Allahabad High Court in Western UP is justified. With protests in Meerut and 22 districts, litigants face huge travel costs to Allahabad, making a local bench essential for justice delivery.
The demand for a western UP bench of the Allahabad High Court is justified
By Justice Markandey Katju
While I do not approve of blocking roads, I believe that the demand for a bench of the Allahabad High Court in western UP is justified, considering the huge cost to litigants of western UP to travel to Allahabad which is in eastern UP, and the Justice Jaswant Singh Committee said as much after studying the matter in great detail.
There are many benches of the MP High Court and the Bombay High Court. The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court ( of which I was the Chief Justice in 2004-2005 ) was created in July 2004 for litigants of southern Tamil Nadu, as it was very expensive for them to travel to Chennai which was far in the north of Tamil Nadu. On the same logic, a bench of the Allahabad High Court should be created in western UP.
Allahabad High Court lawyers have opposed creating a western UP bench because they fear their incomes will go down as rich clients are from western UP, whereas eastern UP is relatively poor.
But the judiciary exists for serving litigants, not the lawyers.
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. These are his personal views.)
