Maharashtra govt at forefront of efforts to provide infrastructure for judiciary, says CJI Gavai

Mumbai: Chief Justice of India B R Gavai on Sunday said Maharashtra government was always at the fore to provide infrastructure for the judiciary in the state.

He was speaking after inaugurating the Bombay High Court’s new circuit bench in Kolhapur district.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde were also present on the occasion.

“There was some remarks made by certain persons, I do not want to take their names, that Maharashtra government is behind when it comes to providing infrastructure for the judiciary,” CJI Gavai said.

“This is wrong. I am of the opinion that Maharashtra is not behind when it comes to judiciary’s infrastructure. Government is always behind the judiciary when it comes to infrastructure,” the CJI said.

The state government has made the impossible possible by ensuring that the building for the Kolhapur’s bench was set up within a short span of time, he added.

The CJI said people who made remarks that the state government was lagging when it came to judicial infrastructure do not know about Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde.

“I was confident that the government would ensure that the bench would be set up and all infrastructure would be provided,” CJI Gavai said.

He further said that he has always supported for a bench in Kolhapur as no common person should be forced to travel all the way to Mumbai (Bombay HC’s principal bench) to fight for their rights.

The CJI said there is now a demand from lawyers for a bench in Pune as well, but added that it would not be possible, as only a handful of lawyers have made the demand and not the common people.

The setting up of the fourth bench in Kolhapur comes amid demands from various quarters over the years to ease the burden on litigants and lawyers who have to travel to Mumbai, located 380 km away, for hearing of their pleas.

At present, apart from the principal bench in Mumbai, the HC has two more benches – in Nagpur in Vidarbha region and Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) in the state’s Marathwada region.

A third bench of the high court sits in adjoining Goa.

On August 1, a notification was issued by Bombay HC’s Chief Justice Alok Aradhe designating Kolhapur as a circuit bench.

The Kolhapur bench will be functional from Monday (August 18) with a division bench and two single benches.

The new bench will have jurisdiction over six districts – Satara, Sangli, Solapur and Kolhapur, and Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg in the coastal Konkan region.

The Kolhapur division bench will comprise Justices M S Karnik and Sharmila Deshmukh, while Justices S G Dige and S G Chapalgaonkar will preside over the single benches.

The division bench is expected to hear matters including Public Interest Litigations, civil writ petitions, first appeals, family court appeals, contempt appeals, as well as all other civil and criminal matters from the districts of Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg.

The single bench of Justice Dige will hear criminal appeals, criminal revision applications, bail applications and other criminal matters.

Justice Chapalgaonkar will preside over a single bench hearing civil writ petitions, civil applications and other civil matters assigned to a single judge.