It must be stated at the very outset that it is quite bewildering and baffling to see that the state of UP which Ban ki moon who is the former UN Secretary General had slammed as the rape and crime capital of India has the least high court benches in India just one and that too just about 200 km away from Allahabad at Lucknow created way back on July 1 in 1948 when Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister! What is even more reprehensible is that West UP comprising of 26 districts which owe for about more than half of the total pending cases of UP has not even a single bench of high court! Why such a raw, third rated and step motherly treatment for West UP?

Why the high court and benches of 8 states and above all even Lahore high court in Pakistan is closer to West UP as compared to Allahabad high court? Why no attempt has been made to create more benches for UP particularly for West UP which owes for maximum riots, maximum rapes, maximum killings etc and still there is no bench here? Worst of all, why even the invaluable recommendation made by Justice Jaswant Singh who was a former Judge of the Supreme Court and former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court and appointed by former PM late Mrs Indira Gandhi as head of Jaswant Singh Commission to look into where all benches were required and who recommended 3 benches for UP with main bench at Agra where high court itself of UP was located from 1866 to 1869 and 2 circuit benches at Dehradun and Nainital even though on its recommendations benches were created at Aurangabad in Maharashtra which has been functioning since 1985 as also at Madurai in Tamil Nadu and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal?

Why even Supreme Court did not take notice of this glaring disparity and open cheating with the moré than 9 crore people of West UP and set up an independent SIT (Special Investigation Team) to look into it as to why Centre backstabbed UP so brutally even though maximum PM have all been from UP including Mrs Indira Gandhi who had set up the Jaswant Singh Commission to look into where all benches are needed?

Why the nearly one crore people of hilly areas of UP now created into a separate state in Uttarakhand in 2000 were still compelled to travel more than thousand kilometers all the way to Allahabad as Centre refused to set up a bench either at Dehradun where the capital of Uttarakhand is now located or at Nainital where the high court is now located?

Why other states where pending cases in high courts didn't exceed even one lakh were given more benches and which already had benches like Maharashtra which already had bench at Nagpur and Panaji but UP which owes for more than 10 lakh pending cases in high court itself which is more than the pending cases of 10 states put together and more than 97 lakh cases in lower courts which is more than nearly all other states put together was still denied even a single high court bench?

Why Centre has decided not to create even a single bench for any part of UP even though former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had demanded bench for West UP in Parliament in 1986 and present Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had demanded a high court bench for Gorakhpur in 1998 in Parliament as he was MP from Gorakhpur then? Why Centre from 1955-2021 repeatedly took memorandums from the lawyers of West UP demanding high court bench and assured them repeatedly while also labelling it as a justified demand but when it came to setting up of bench decided to go out of turn for Karnataka and create 2 more benches there for just 4 and 8 districts respectively at Dharwad and Gulbarga while stubbornly refusing to create even a single bench for not just West UP but for any other part of UP including Bundelkhand? Why was it ignored that the population of Karnataka is just about 6 crore yet it has high court and 3 benches at Hubli, Dharwad and Gulbarga but West UP with more than 9 crore population has not even a single bench and UP with more than 24 crore population as UP CM Yogi Adityananth keeps proudly recalling every now and then has just one bench created way back in 1948 more than seventy four years ago?

Why was it ignored by Centre that Allahabad high court is the largest court not just in India but whole of Asia and also one of the oldest high court in India along with Calcutta, Bombay and Madras yet has just one high court bench? Why maximum Judges for Allahabad high court – 160 which is highest in India yet minimum benches again? Why UP has maximum districts 75, maximum MPs in Lok Sabha 80, maximum MPs in Rajya Sabha 31, maximum MLAs in Vidhan Sabha 404, maximum MLAs in Vidhan Parishad 100, maximum villages more than one lakh, maximum towns more than 700, maximum pending cases, maximum riots, maximum crime etc yet has just one bench? Why no attempt made to create more benches?

Why even six months strike by lawyers of 26 districts of West UP thrice as they did in 2001, three to four months strike as they did in 2014-15, two months as they did in 2010 and one month as they did in 2009 and one month hunger strike in 1978 apart from the strike every Saturday and even on Wednesday apart from the many strike for weeks every year has failed to shake Centre in taking any concrete step for creating a high court bench in West UP? Why Centre fails to appreciate that the people of more than 26 districts of West UP are compelled foolishly to travel more than 700-750 km on an average all the way to Allahabad which takes a whole night and people are compelled to travel many times to travel without reservations when they have to go all of a sudden many times? Still should a high court bench not be created in West UP?

If not then why Lucknow has a bench since 1948 when the distance till Allahabad is just about 200 km? Can't the people of Lucknow and adjoining districts travel 200-250 km to Allahabad when the people of 26 districts of West UP can travel so far? If Lucknow is capital then so is Bhopal which is capital of MP, Bhubaneshwar which is capital of Odisha, Dehradun which is capital of Uttarakhand, Dispur which is capital of Assam, Raipur which is capital of Chhattisgarh and Thiruvananthapuran which is capital of Kerala yet all these capital cities have neither high court nor bench? Is this fair?

Why the population of West UP at more than 9 crore is more than all other states except UP of which it is a part, Maharashtra and Bihar and here too the area of West UP at 98,933 square km is more than Bihar with just 94,000 square km yet West UP has not even a bench of high court leave alone having high court itself? Why Lucknow has bench for just 12 districts and area 62,000 square km but West UP with 26 districts and 98,933 square km has no bench? Why the recommendations made by many UP CM like Sampoornanand who in 1955 had recommended a bench for West UP at Meerut was repeatedly overlooked by Centre? Why when Mayawati recommended West UP to be created as a separate state in 1995 did Centre not accept it? Why even a single bench was not approved? Why even eminent Supreme Court lawyers like former President of Supreme Court Bar Association and former Union Law Minister – Kapil Sibal strongly recommended for High Court Bench at Meerut in UPA's tenure as was disclosed by another Union Minister RPN Singh yet no Bench created anywhere in West UP?

Just spending lakhs and crores of rupees on national highways or on creating more airports as we saw recently in Kushinagar and Jewar in UP which PM Narendra Modi inaugurated pompously as BJP did will not ensure victory in elections in West UP as lawyers had declared their aim of defeating BJP publicly at any cost as they didn't approve bench for 26 districts of West UP even though it took no time to create a bench at Kolhapur for just 6 districts where pending cases of all districts is less than that of Meerut alone and still Centre is not prepared to create even a single bench in any of the 26 districts of West UP even though tall leaders of BJP during elections time like Rajnath Singh and others had promised that they would create a bench soon if voted to power in UP and Centre? But even after more than 7 years in power in Centre, we still see no action on the ground! This explains why BJP lost in by elections in both Kairana and Noorpur! Earlier also in Gorakhpur BJP lost as there also no bench has been created till now even though CM himself had raised it in Parliament in 1998 and BJP MP Rajinder Agarwal from Meerut and another BJP MP from Baghpat and Union Minister Satyapal Singh too had demanded 5 benches for UP at Gorakhpur, Meerut, Agra, Jhansi and Varanasi but we see not a single bench is being approved till now!

As per the Section 51 of the States Re-Organisation 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!

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! There are so many other examples galore that it is just not possible to list out each one of them! 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 former Chief Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale while in office as Chief Justice 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 we all know very well yet Maharashtra has three high court benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad and Panaji even though it tops in the justice index list in latest rankings but Centre is not ready to set up one bench more anywhere in UP which figures among the bottom states! 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?

To say the least, 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 2001 had 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? If UP can't be given more benches and West UP can't have even one bench then all the benches in India must be disbanded right now because it is the people of West UP who are suffering the most because of no bench here!

Last but not the least: Why can't Centre take serious steps to address this cancerous problem root and branch and not just resort to baby steps and band-aid measures like reducing time limit to reach Delhi by spending many crores of rupees on creating 14 lane national highways etc but doing nothing at all to create more benches anywhere in UP so that people are not compelled to travel whole night and half a day to Allahabad as is the case with more than 25 districts of West UP whereas most of the districts of West UP are so close to Meerut that it takes just few hours only? Why can't then this be done that a High Court Bench be created in Meerut? Is it really such a big deal? Definitely not! Only a strong political will power is needed which PM Narendra Modi has in abundance which we have seen also for ourselves time and again!

Parvez Alam, Advocate,
BA, LLB, LLM,
Chamber No. 151, Near Election Office,
Collectrate Compound, Kutchery,
Meerut – 250003, Uttar Pradesh.