No proposal from Uttar Pradesh to set up new bench of Allahabad High Court: Govt.

Source – financialexpress.com

The Union government on Wednesday clarified that there was no complete proposal from any state government, including Uttar Pradesh, to set up a new bench in any state.

The demand for setting up a new bench of Allahabad High Court in western Uttar Pradesh has been pending for quite some time. However, the government has clarified in the Parliament that there was no complete proposal before it to set up a new bench of Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh.

As per the recommendations made by the Jaswant Singh Commission and judgment pronounced by the Supreme Court, new benches of a high court are established after due consideration of a complete proposal from the state government, said law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in the Lok Sabha.

India’s largest High Court, Allahabad High Court has just one bench in Lucknow, in addition to the main court located at the religious city of Prayag. A full bench of Allahabad High Court was set up in Lucknow in 1948 to help the speedy hearing of the matters related to the state government.

Though Uttar Pradesh has just one bench in Lucknow, outside its principal seat in the city of Prayag, less populous states like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka have more than one benches to reduce the travel requirements of the people of the state.

While Bombay High Court has two additional benches in the state of Maharashtra in Nagpur and Aurangabad in addition to its principal seat located in the state capital Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh has two more benches in Indore and Gwalior in addition to its principal seat in Jabalpur.

Similarly, Karnataka High Court also has two additional benches in Gulbarga and Dharwad in addition to its principal seat in the state capital Bangalore.

Rajasthan High Court has an additional bench in the state capital Jaipur in addition to its principal seat located in Jodhpur.

Madras High Court has an additional bench in Madurai in addition to its main bench located in the state capital Chennai.

While some states have more than one bench, the states of Punjab and Haryana have a common high court based in the union territory of Chandigarh.

At present, there are 13 benches of respective high courts in addition to their main benches. Out of these 13 benches, Gauhati High Court has three benches outside the state of Assam while Bombay and Calcutta High Courts have one bench each outside the state of Maharashtra and West Bengal.

Calcutta High Court has a circuit bench in Port Blair in Andaman & Nicobar while Bombay High Court has a bench in Panji, Goa to serve the people of Goa.

Gauhati High Court has three benches in Kohima, Aizawl, and Itanagar to serve the people of Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.