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Why Is BJP Not Creating More Benches In UP?
It needed no Albert Einstein to conclude that BJP would lose in the byelections to be held in UP in Kairana and Noorpur in West UP. This had to happen because BJP inspite of promising to create high court bench in West UP if it came to power both in Centre and State repeatedly backtracked and did just nothing to create a high court bench in any of the 26 districts of West UP! On the contrary, BJP won in Palghar in Maharashtra where BJP created a high court bench at Kolhapur for just 6 districts!
Let me begin on a bitter note by expressing my profuse disappointment and utmost disenchantment with the continuous and callous disregard of more than 15 crore people living in different parts of UP which is more than 10 small states put together by Centre since 1947 till 2018! Why is it that only Eastern UP has high court at Allahabad and a single bench at Lucknow and all the other regions like Western UP, Bundelkhand and Purvanchal etc have been completely disregarded and denied their legitimate share by giving them at least one high court bench? Why no government in Centre has ever taken any initiative to correct this worst injustice since 1947 till now in 2018?
Which
state has maximum districts in India – 75? UP! Which state sends maximum MPs to
Lok Sabha – 80? UP! Which state sends maximum MPs to Rajya Sabha – 31? UP!
Which state sends maximum members to Vidhan Sabha – 404? UP!
Which
state sends maximum representation to Vidhan Parishad – 100? UP! Which state
elects maximum Mayors? Which state elects maximum representatives at all
levels? UP! Which state has maximum population which is more than 19 crore as
per 2011 census even though in public rallies UP CM Yogi Adityanath and PM
Narendra Modi keep saying more than 22 crore? UP!
Which
state has maximum villages more than one lakh even though no other state has
more than few thousand villages at the most? UP! Which state has maximum poverty?
UP! Which state has maximum cities which is more than 700? UP!
Which
state has maximum crime to the extent that former UN Secretary General Ban ki
moon had slammed UP as the “rape and crime capital of India”? UP! Here too
which part of UP owes for more than 52% of pending cases of UP and yet has no
high court bench? West UP! Which state has maximum pending cases which is more
than the cases of 10 states put together? UP!
Which
state owes for maximum dowry deaths? UP! Which state owes for maximum custodial
deaths? UP! Which state has maximum pending cases in lower courts more than 65
lakhs? UP!
Which
state has maximum pending cases of communal violence and riots as we saw in
Muzaffarnagar in 2013, Meerut riots in 1988, Bareilly riots, Agra riots etc all
in Western part? UP! Which state has maximum pending cases of rape,
molestation, murder and other crimes against women? UP! Which state has maximum
strength of Judges both in high court at 160 and in lower courts at 5000? UP!
Which state has maximum vacancies of Judges? UP! Which state has sent maximum
PM which includes Narendra Modi from Varanasi? UP!
The larger point that I want to make here is this: Why is it
that Allahabad High Court tops among all states when it comes to the number of
pending cases which is more than 10 lakhs whereas most of other states have not
more than one lakh cases and still Centre is busy creating more and more high
court benches for them! Assam till a few years ago had 7 high court benches but
after Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura were given separate high courts, it now
stands reduced to 4! But Allahabad High Court has just one! Is this fair?
Lamentably,
even small states like Sikkim, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur, etc with just about
6 lakh population, 29 lakh , 36 lakh, 27 lakh have high courts but West UP with
more than 9 crore population has not even a single bench of high court! Even
Andaman and Nicobar islands with just 3 lakh population has bench but not West
UP with more than 9 crore population!
As
if this was not enough, Centre decided to openly mock at Allahabad High Court
by not creating even one more bench for it even though Justice Jaswant Singh
Commission had recommended 3 benches for UP! But the worst which was yet to
come was when Centre most shamelessly decided to create a high court bench for
Maharashtra at Aurangabad as recommended which already had benches at Nagpur
and Panaji, at Madurai in Tamil Nadu and at Jalpaiguri in West Bengal! This
under no circumstances can be ever justified!
Not
just this, Centre has always ensured that this high court has maximum vacancies
of Judges which is highest in country with more than half of seats which stands
at 160 keep lying vacant! Is this fair? Is Centre not aware that Allahabad High
Court needs “special attention” and not “special neglect”?
Is
Centre not aware that Justice Jaswant Singh Commission had categorically
pointed out that West UP owes for about 57% of the total pending cases which is
more than half of the total pending cases in UP still why its landmark
recommendation to create a bench here to take care of nearly 40 districts at
Agra with circuit benches at Nainital and Dehradun overlooked?
How long will BJP follow Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s policy of allowing only one high court bench at Lucknow just 200 km away from Allahabad and nowhere else? How long will BJP keep opposing the creation of a high court bench in any other part of UP especially West UP which owes for more than 52% of the total pending cases of UP? How long will Siddharnath Singh who is senior Cabinet Minister in UP keep saying most brazenly that, “Bench cannot be created by just statements. It takes lot of time. It needs the prior approval of the Supreme Court and High Court”?
How long will BJP ministers like him keep ignoring that bench can be created very soon as we saw recently in Maharashtra where BJP created a bench at Kolhapur in Maharashtra for just 6 districts in which BJP CM Devendra Fadnavis played the most important role? How long will UP CM Yogi Adityanath keep doing “Deep Daan”, “Light Festival” etc in Ayodhya and not create more benches refusing to learn anything from repeated defeats in byelections especially in West UP where lawyers have been agitating since last more than 50 years?
Why Centre approves one more bench for Mumbai high court at Kolhapur for just 6 districts which already had 3 benches at Panaji, Aurangabad and Nagpur just recently in 2018 itself but cites 100 reasons for not creating a single more bench for Allahabad High Court in any hook and corner of UP leave alone West UP? Why Yogi Adityanath as MP raised the demand for a high court bench in Gorakhpur which he has represented since last more than two decades in 1998 but has done nothing to create a bench here even after being in power for more than a year in UP even though he has ensured creation of an AIIMS there which is commendable? Why Centre from 1947 till 2018 has taken the stand that, “Ask anything for UP but not a high court bench as only Lucknow deserves it”? What rubbish!
If
Lucknow is capital then so are Bhopal which is capital of Madhya Pradesh,
Dehradun which is capital of Uttarakhand, Bhubaneshwar which is capital of
Odisha and Thiruvanathapuram which is capital of Kerala yet they have neither
high court nor bench! Also, Lucknow’s area jurisdiction is just 62,00 square km
and that of West UP is 98,933 square km! The number of districts which come
under the jurisdiction of Lucknow bench is just 12 and that of West UP is 26!
The population of districts under Lucknow jurisdiction stands nowhere as
compared to West UP whose population at more than 9 crore is more than any
other state except UP of which it is itself a part, Maharashtra and Bihar and
here too areawise West UP has 98,933 square km and that of Bihar is just 94,000
square km! Still Lucknow has a bench since 1948!
It
has been more than one year since Yogi Adityanath came to power and 4 years
since NDA came to power in Centre with firm assurance by none other than the
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh that a high court bench would be created in
West UP if it came to power in Centre and State of UP but till now even after
coming to power in both Centre and UP we don’t see BJP setting up a Bench
anywhere not just in West UP but anywhere in UP! This is what is most hurting!
Why is West UP being denied unfairly its due?
Why when Sampoornanand recommended a high court bench to be created at Meerut in 1955 after more than 100 elected representatives met him and convinced him of the dire need of the same did Nehru refuse? Why when a bench could be created at Lucknow in 1948 could a bench not be created at Meerut which is more than 700 km away in 1955? Why when Kapil Sibal wanted a high court bench to be created at Meerut when he was Union Law Minister as another Union Minister RPN Singh had disclosed but the then UP CM Akhilesh Yadav objected did Centre not listen to its own reputed and one of the most reputed jurist of India? Why Centre said that the recommendation made by Law Commission in its fourth report in 1956 recommended against creating more benches and so West UP could not be given a bench conveniently overlooked everything when it came to other states and kept on creating benches there and also overlooked that the Law Commission in its 230th report in 2009 recommended creation of
more benches yet West UP and other parts of UP like Bundelkhand were kicked by
not creating more benches for Allahabad high court in any of these places?
Why
catchy slogans like “speedy justice”, “justice at doorsteps” and “cheap
justice” not implemented for West UP and other remote areas of UP by creating
more benches here? Why Mayawati wanted high court itself for West UP by
recommending to Centre that it be made a separate state way back in 1995 but
Centre is not ready to concede even a bench for West UP? Why is BJP a blind
follower of Congress in this regard and till now has ensured that not a single
high court bench is created in any hook and corner of UP except the one created
already by Nehru 70 years ago in 1948 at Lucknow?
This despite the fact that former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had thundered in Parliament way back in 1986 as Opposition Leader demanding the creation of a High Court Bench in West UP and Yogi Adityanath who is now UP CM also himself thundered while demanding for a High Court Bench at Gorakhpur way back in 1998 right inside Parliament but 20 years later we don’t see any High Court Bench anywhere being created in UP! One can understand that Vajpayee didn’t enjoy majority but Modi has it but we see no action forthcoming on this so far even though he is taking other steps for UP like pompously inaugurating the 14 lane highway connecting Delhi with Meerut and other districts of West UP in which many croresof rupeeshave been spent which will reduce the time limit from Meerut to Delhi from 2 hours to just 45 minutes which is commendable but what about high court bench in West UP which is affecting the litigants of 26 districts most adversely due to which they are still compelled to travel more than 700 km all the way to Allahabad whole night without reservation many times and bear all sorts of inconveniences?
When will action be taken on this score? Why can’t few crores be spared for creating a bench in West UP and other needy areas of UP like in Jhansi in Bundelkhand and in Gorakhpur?
It is not for nothing that Union Minister Satyapal Singh demanded in Parliament the creation of 5 high court benches at Meerut, Agra, Jhansi, Gorakhpur and Varanasi but the real tragedy is that his own PM is not listening to him and not creating even one more bench anywhere else in UP other than the one which already exists at Lucknow! Similarly many other BJP MPs like former Union Minister Sanjeev Baliyan, Union Minister Gen VK Singh, Mahesh Sharma and other MPs like Rajinder Agarwal keep demanding benches but to no avail!
As per the Section 51 of the States Reorganisation Act of 1956, the Centre can create a high court bench in any of these 3 states – UP, Bihar and J&K directly by bringing it up in Parliament. Centre does not need any recommendation from State Government or the Chief Justice as has been very wrongly propagated for many decades! What a national disgrace that these very 3 states – Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Bihar keep on grabbing the national news headlines for all the wrong reasons as crime incidents keep multiplying very rapidly and what is worst is Centre’s stupid and crazy determination to not allow a single more bench in all these 3 states!
It is incomprehensible why Centre can approve 3 or 4 or 5 benches for peaceful states like Maharashtra, Karnataka among others but not more than one for UP which has maximum pending cases which is more than 10 states put together! Allahabad High Court must be given its due honour and it must have maximum high court benches and not minimum! Disband all high court benches in India if Allahabad High Court cannot be given more benches, West UP cannot be given a bench nor can Bundelkhand or Gorakhpur (which is CM Yogi’s constituency and where BJP just recently lost) for people living so far away who face maximum sufferings because of this but which no PM has ever dared to address for reasons never disclosed!
This all-important issue directly affecting billions of litigants coming from all sections of society is lying largely unattended and untreated since many decades! But now not any longer! Allahabad High Court must get its due by creating more benches for it!
Even lawyers in Allahabad itself are not safe! We all saw how a young lawyer Rajesh Shrivastav aged 45 in Allahabad was shot dead mercilessly in broad daylight in market itself while he was on his way to court! Criminals know that it take ages for cases to be decided in UP as UP has least benches in India and maximum pending cases in India no matter how many tall claims UP CM may make time and again! UP Chief Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale in a case involving rape of few women on national highway in Bulandshahr in West UP rightly said that there is total lawlessness in UP as compared to Maharashtra where women can travel alone in night anywhere and this I have also seen myself at Pune from where I did LLB but see the difference that Maharashtra has four high court benches with latest at Kolhapur for just 6 districts and Pune is all set to get another as CM Devendra Fadnavis has approved it for which we all must applaud him but Centre is not ready to set up one bench more anywhere in UP! When Maharashtra can get benches in no time then why Allahabad High Court in UP which has maximum pending cases be denied its due share?
Why Centre took no time to create 2 more high court benches for Karnataka with just 6 crore population which is less than even West UP population alone and which already had a bench at Hubli for just 4 and 8 districts at Gulbarga and Dharwad respectively but for 26 districts and more than 9 crore people of West UP not a single bench was approved even though the lawyers here keep going on strike as they did thrice like once in 2001 for 6 months from July to December and for 3 to 4 months as they did in 2014-15 and for one month as they did in 2010 and for many weeks as they keep doing every year apart from the strikes on Saturdays and many times even on Wednesdays? Why Centre disregarded the most commendable recommendation made by one of the most eminent jurist of India – Soli J Sorabjee who as Attorney General in 2001had categorically recommended that, “Centre is empowered to create a high court bench in West UP without any recommendation from the Chief Justice or Chief Minister or anyone else in this regard”? Why Centre even disregarded what former Chairman of Supreme Court Bar Association BN Krishnamani said that, “Only by the creation of a high court bench in any of the districts in West UP will the people living there get real justice”?
Why can’t Centre take serious steps to address this cancerous problem root and branch and not just resort to baby steps and bandaid measures like reducing time limit to reach Delhi by spending many crores of rupees on creating 14 lane national highways but doing nothing at all to create more benches anywhere in UP so that people are not compelled to travel whole night to Allahabad? Why can’t this be done? Is it such a big deal? No wonder, BJP is repeatedly losing by elections in UP and has lost both seats – Noorpur and Kolhapur in West UP! But still the worst irony is that BJP is not prepared to create a single bench anywhere in UP! Shocking!
