There can be just no refuting the irrefutable fact that it is high time and a major overhaul is needed most desperately in the manner of distribution of High Court Benches in different States hinging on the population, size and pendency of cases because currently we see that most irrationally there has been allotment on this count which is totally incomprehensible at least now when 100 years of independence is just at a stone throw away distance!

It makes absolutely just no sense at all that the most populated State of India that is Uttar Pradesh with maximum number of pending cases has just one High Court Bench only and as if this was not enough, we see most horribly that the one Bench at Lucknow created so close to Allahabad where High Court itself is located in Eastern UP! Adding fuel to fire further, we see that the litigants of 30 districts of West UP attached with not even Lucknow which falls more than 230 km earlier but right uptill Allahabad which in itself is the biggest betrayal of Constitution, brazen throttling of justice and worst of all makes the most horrendous mockery of poorest litigants of West UP who cannot afford to travel by plane and have to travel again and again to attend court hearings by train like a donkey or a slave all the way right till Allahabad most foolishly!

This despite the irrefutable fact that it is West UP which owes for majority of pending cases of UP as conceded on record by Justice Jaswant Singh Commission headed by former Supreme Court Judge appointed by Centre itself which alone explains why it recommended a permanent seat of High Court Bench in West UP at Agra yet after nearly 50 years we see no action taken on it! Not just this, we saw how maximum three High Court Benches were recommended for undivided UP yet not one created which led to people of hilly areas giving momentum to separate Statehood as litigants had to travel thousands of kilometers like a ass all the way again till Allahabad most horribly! Is Centre waiting for West UP to tread on lines of Uttarakhand?

How can anyone on this earth ever deny that none other than late Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee whose 100th birth anniversary was celebrated on December 25, 2024 all across the nation had in 1986 most forcefully demanded the setting up of a High Court Bench in West UP right inside Parliament as Leader of Opposition? Even former PM Late Mr Rajiv Gandhi had wanted to set up a High Court Bench in West UP but as a rift had developed between Meerut and Agra as place where it should be set up, this most pressing issue was not addressed and was receded to the backburner most unfortunately! While indulging in most blatant, brutal, brazen, blind and baseless discrimination, Centre approved one More High Court Bench for Maharashtra at Aurangabad in early 1980s even though it already had multiple High Court Benches as was recommended by the Justice Jaswant Commission!

The only durable solution is creation of High Court Bench in West UP! Denial of even a single Bench in West UP is wholly unjustified! Let us not forget that none other than UP CM Shri Yogi Adityanath himself had even sent a written recommendation to the Allahabad High Court in January 2024 but most perplexingly withdrew it the next day without disclosing that under what circumstances it was withdrawn!

The moot question here is: Why has merit been allowed to become the worst casualty in allotment of High Court Benches in different States? Why Apex Court has never intervened on such a most pressing issue which directly concerns the judiciary itself is the biggest conundrum that still remains unaddressed? Fact is, West UP should have been given a Bench way back in 1947 or 1948 but what we witnessed on ground was that Allahabad which had High Court in Eastern UP since centuries was allotted Bench also at Lucknow so near to Allahabad in 1948 more than 76 years ago and nowhere else even though majority of pending cases are from West UP which also contributes more than 75% to State’s economy yet accorded most step-motherly treatment by being deprived from having even a single Bench which makes a complete sham of our democracy as equality in distribution of High Court Benches even in different regions of the same State has been flouted so openly as we see in UP where Eastern UP alone enjoys the unfettered monopoly of having both High Court and a single Bench so very near to each other which is completely antithetical to the very concept of equality as enshrined in Article 14 of Constitution!

What is worse is that Centre did not do anything to ensure that a High Court Bench is created in West UP or any other region of UP other than East UP! What is even most worst is that even Supreme Court on such a critical issue directly concerning and affecting judiciary did not do anything at all to ensure that UP and especially West UP was not mercilessly discriminated against without any rhyme or reason on allotment of Bench! The whole world saw how Supreme Court got so angry when cheating took place in a Mayor election in Chandigarh but what baffles me most is why the same Supreme Court maintains a deafening silence when it comes to worst discrimination perpetrated against big States like UP and Rajasthan which both have only one and most disgracefully lawless Bihar has none just like West UP and nothing on earth can be more atrocious than this and still has gone completely unchecked, unnoticed and unattended by the top court for nearly 80 long years! Most disgusting indeed!

It is a no-brainer that which State needs more High Court Benches yet most unfortunately we see that Centre is just not at all prepared to see the clear writing on the wall nor is Apex Court prepared to ruffle the feathers of Centre on such a most pressing issue directly affecting the poorest litigants who become the worst casualty due to no Bench being created in needy regions like West UP, Purvanchal and Bundelkhand! One says this not with glee but with sorrow: Centre has never evinced any interest leave alone resolve in addressing this long pending issue since 1947!

It may be recalled that Dr Satyapal Singh who is former BJP MP from Baghpat and so also is former Mumbai Police Commissioner and so also is former Union Minister in PM Narendra Modi’s Cabinet had in 2016 most vociferously demanded creation of two High Court Benches in West UP in Meerut and Agra and so also at Jhansi in Bundelkhand and Gorakhpur in Purvanchal and Varanasi but Centre most horribly till now in 2025 is still not ready to create even a single more Bench for Allahabad High Court which is the biggest High Court in world with maximum members in State Bar Council other than at Lucknow where it was just not needed at all and where it was created more than 76 years ago!

I am not at all inclined to buy one lame excuse or the other forwarded by Centre to deny West UP or even any other part of UP even a single Bench! It is high time and UP definitely needs to be pulled back from the brink of huge pending cases which is possible only by the creation of more Benches especially in West UP which owes for majority of pending cases of UP and still has not even a single Bench leave alone having High Court!

One thing is for sure: All arguments against the creation of a High Court Bench in West UP are not only just ludicrous but also simply a factory of fabricated lies and nothing else! What most deeply disturbs my conscience is that still Centre is totally unrelenting to do anything worthwhile to correct the biggest Himalayan blunder committed since 1947 and perpetrated till date without any bona fide justification for it! There is no prima facie reason for depriving West UP from having even a single Bench!

The prime question here is: Who is responsible for this most messy state of affairs perpetrated most atrociously in allotment of High Court Benches in different regions and different States? It must definitely also be asked: Why Supreme Court has gone into a deep hibernation on such a most pressing issue directly connected with the judiciary itself since last nearly 80 years? The most germane question is: When will it wake up and take suo motu cognizance of it? After 100 years in 2047 or 2048?

What leaves me even more completely dumbfounded is that even our national media barring few newspapers and so also most of the news channels have also turned a complete blind eye and deaf ear to the huge inconvenience faced by the litigants of West UP which definitely makes for most depressing reading. What has really shaken me to the hilt and angered me most is that even after knowing fully well that lawyers of West UP have been going on strike for 6 months as in 2001 and so also in 2014-15 and strike every Saturday since last nearly 45 years and strike for month or two months since last many decades as in 2009 and one month hunger strike also as in 1976 demanding High Court Bench in West UP and what not but still Centre is recalcitrant to take any tangible step to resolve this long pending most pressing issue! This is the real rub!

It must be addressed at the earliest now by the Centre without forwarding one pretext or the other as was done in Karnataka with just 6 crore population in 2008 for just 4 and 8 districts at Dharwad and Gulbarga even though West UP has more than 10 crore population which is more than the population of majority of the States in India and still has not even a Bench leave alone having a High Court as ideally should have been as even Dr BR Ambedkar favoured West UP as a separate State! No denying!

Sanjeev Sirohi, Advocate,
s/o Col (Retd) BPS Sirohi, A 82, Defence Enclave,
Sardhana Road, Kankerkhera, Meerut - 250001, Uttar Pradesh