Sign of BJP setback? Yogi 'fails' to ensure separate High Court bench for western UP

By Sanjeev Sirohi*
BJP appears on have made it clear that in its five year rule it is deadly opposed to the creation of a new High Court bench in western Uttar Pradesh. Today, the Allahabad High Court has just one bench -- in Lucknow, created by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on July 1, 1948. Incumbent CM Yogi Adityanath had thundered for a High Court Bench for Gorakhpur way back in 1999 while representing it as MP inside Parliament, but as CM he could not ensure High Court Bench even for Gorakhpur, leave alone West UP, or Bundelkhand, or any other needy region in UP.
He has been unable to have his way, as the Centre stands supreme on this and this is tilting the perception battle heavily against BJP. Earlier senior Union Cabinet leader Defence Minister Rajnath Singh used to openly say that if BJP wins in Centre and in UP, a High Court Bench in West UP will be created. But BJP reneged on its tall promise -- just like Atal Bihari Vajpayee demanded High Court Bench for West UP inside Parliament in 1986 but reneged when he came to power.
Meanwhile, Jayant Chaudhary, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader, announced recently that if his party came to power he would create three High Court Benches in UP – one in West UP, one in Bundelkhand and a third one at Ghazipur. This has started showing its impact on the ground. He knows: Lucknow is so close to Allahabad, where the High Court is located.
Former PM Indira Gandhi appointed a commission headed by former Supreme Court Judge Justice Jaswant Singh, who was also the former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, to look into where all High Court Benches should be created. It recommended three High Court Benches for undivided UP – one at Agra and two circuit benches at Nainital and Dehradun.
Thereafter, the Centre created a High Court Bench at Aurangabad in Maharashtra which already had two High Court Benches at Nagpur and Panaji, and so also a at Madurai in Tamil Nadu and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal! Meanwhile, the people of hilly areas had to travel all the way more than a thousand kilometres to Allahabad as all the districts were attached with Allahabad and not with Lucknow, which was still closer even though not so close.
Today, high courts and benches of eight states, and even Lahore High Court in Pakistan, are nearer to West UP as compared to Allahabad. The lawyers of West UP were compelled to go on strike for six months from July to December 2001 demanding the creation of a High Court bench in West UP, yet no was action taken. Similar strikes also took place in 2009 and 2010. In 2014-15 the lawyers of West UP went on strike for up to four months and even boycotted Lok Adalats and protested whole night outside the court but again the Centre just gave empty assurances but nothing materialized on ground. The saga of repeated strikes is continuing. Recently they were on strike for five days. Now they have even started striking on every Wednesday.
One wonders: Why is there a High Court bench at Port Blair for just three lakh people, a High Court for just six lakh people of Sikkim, for just few lakhs of people of people in Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura? Why is there a High Court now for Uttarakhand since 2000 for just 88 lakh people, but not even a bench for more than nine crore people of West UP? Why such a raw treatment?
Karnataka has 3 High Court Benches, Maharashtra three, Assam four, and Madhya Pradesh two etc. even though they have less than one lakh pending cases. UP has maximum number of pending cases – more than 10 lakh -- of which West UP accounts for more than half of pending cases, 57%, as noted by Justice Jaswant Commission.
West UP has maximum number of fake encounter killings, custodial killings, dowry cases, maximum bride burning cases, human rights violations, robberies, dacoities, undertrials, and cases of loot. Not without reason, former UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon termed UP as “crime and rape capital” of India -- thanks only to West UP.

Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura, apart from Gorakhpur, are considered worthless by BJP’s central leadership for a High Court Bench in UP

The total area of West UP is 98,933 square km and accounts for 33.61 percent of total area of UP and has 26 districts, yet it has no bench, but Lucknow with just 62,363 square km and 12 districts has a bench. The Allahabad High Court is the biggest High Court in whole of Asia, as claimed by Yogi Adityanath, and also one of the oldest High Courts. But that is hardly a solace for the people of west UP.
The UPA government headed by former PM Manmohan Singh decided to create two more High Court Benches for Karnataka which already had a Bench at Hubli for just four and eight districts at Dharwad and Gulbarga respectively in 2008, first as Circuit Bench and then later in 2013 as full Bench as the Karnataka leaders who were very influential were Law Ministers and cared for Karnataka.
The lawyers of West UP headed by senior lawyers and Chairman and Secretary of Central Action Committee constituted for setting up a High Court Bench in 1981 repeatedly met the PM, UPA Chairperson Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi among others but nothing happened thereafter.
But why blame UPA alone? Even the incumbent PM Narendra Damodardas Modi has ensured that not a single High Court is approved anywhere, not just in West UP but in any nook and corner of UP, even though it is UP which primarily decides which party will rule in Delhi.
Ranjan Gogoi when CJI had appreciated the dire need of a High Court Bench in West UP when a woman lawyer KL Chitra raised the issue in her PIL, but Gogoi made it clear that it was for the Centre to take the final call on this. But the Centre led by Modi is very firm not to allow a bench other than the one that exists in Lucknow.
Clearly, Jayant Chaudhary has played a super master stroke by promising three High Court Benches for UP which has refreshed the lawyer community the most in UP. Indeed, even holy cities like Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura, apart from Gorakhpur in UP, are considered worthless by BJP’s central leadership for a High Court Bench in UP. This has exposed BJP in the eyes of the people.

---
*Advocate, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh

Comments

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Union budget 'mum' on relief to marginalised communities facing climate change impact

Counterview Desk ActionAid, an international advocacy group which claims to work for a world without poverty, patriarchy and injustice, has wondered if the Union budget 2023-24, which is being acclaimed for providing succour to the middle classes, has anything to offer to the India's poor. In a statement, it said, while the budget may have "prioritised inclusive development", the financial outlay for ensuring it "does not show the zeal as hoped." Stating that the Finance Minister said Rs 35,000 crore revenue would have to be "forgone" due to a reduction in personal income taxes, "fiscal prudence is not enough to expand public employment, social security, welfare, education and health expenditures considerably." "The need of the hour is to raise revenues through the reduction of revenues forgone and innovative mechanisms such as wealth tax on super accumulation of wealth", it added. Text: The Union Budget 2023 has given significant

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

How lead petitioner was rendered homeless when GM mustard matter came up in SC

By Rosamma Thomas* On January 5, 2023, the Supreme Court stayed a December 20, 2022 direction of the Uttarakhand High Court to the Indian Railways and the district administration of Haldwani to use paramilitary forces to evict thousands of poor families occupying land that belonged to the railways. Justice AS Oka remarked that it was not right to order the bringing in of paramilitary forces. The SC held that even those who had no rights, but were living there for years, needed to be rehabilitated. On December 21, 2022, just as she was getting ready to celebrate Christmas, researcher Aruna Rodrigues was abruptly evicted from her home in Mhow Cantonment, Madhya Pradesh – no eviction notice was served, and nearly 30 Indian Army soldiers bearing arms were part of the eviction process. What is noteworthy in this case is that the records establishing possession of the house date back to 1892 – the title deed with the name of Dr VP Cardoza, Rodrigues’ great grandfather, is dated November 14

Why no information with Assam state agency about female rhino poaching for a year?

By Nava Thakuria According to official claims, incidents of poaching related to rhinoceros in various forest reserves of Assam in northeast India have decreased drastically. Brutal laws against the poachers, strengthening of ground staff inside the protected forest areas and increasing public awareness in the fringe localities of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries across the State are the reasons cited for positively impacting the mission to save the one-horned rhinos. Officials records suggest, only two rhinos were poached in Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve since 1 January 2021 till date. The last incident took place probably in the last week of December 2021, as a decomposed carcass of a fully-grown (around 30 years old) female rhino was recovered inside the world-famous forest reserve next month. As the precious horn was missing, for which the gigantic animal was apparently hunted down, it could not be a natural death. Ironically, however, it was not confirmed when

Civil rights leaders allege corporate loot of resources, suppression of democratic rights

By Our Representative Civil rights activists have alleged, quoting top intelligence officers as also multiple international forensic reports, that recent developments with regard to the Bhima Koregaon and the Citizenship Amendment Act-National Register of Citizens (CAA-NRC) cases suggest, there was "no connection between the Elgaar Parishad event and the Bhima Koregaon violence." Activists of the Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) told a media event at the HKS Surjeet Bhawan, New Delhi, that, despite this, several political prisoners continue to be behind bars on being accused under the anti-terror the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Addressed by family members of the political prisoners, academics, as well as social activists, it was highlighted how cases were sought to be fabricated against progressive individuals, democratic activists and intellectuals, who spoke out against "corporate loot of Indian resources, suppression of basic democratic

Kerala natural rubber producers 'squeezed', attend to their plight: Govt of India told

By Rosamma Thomas Babu Joseph, general secretary of the National Federation of Rubber Producers Societies (NFRPS) at a recent discussion at Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, explained that it is high time the Union government paid greater heed to the troubles plaguing the rubber production sector in India – rubber is a strategic product, important for the military establishment and for industry, since natural rubber is still used in the manufacture of tyres for large vehicles and aeroplanes. Synthetic rubber is now quite widespread, but styrene, which is used in making synthetic rubber and plastics, and also butadiene, another major constituent of synthetic rubber, are both hazardous. Prolonged exposure to these even in recycled rubber can cause neurological damage. Kerala produces the bulk of India’s natural rubber. In 2019-20, Kerala’s share in the national production of rubber was over 74%. Over 20% of the gross cropped area in the state is under rubber cultivation, with total

Lack of welfare schemes, BSF curbs force West Bengal farmers to migrate far away

Counteview Desk In a representation to the National Human Rights Commission chairperson, a senior West Bengal based activist has complained that villagers living near the border with Bangladesh are forced to migrate to as far away as Mumbai and Kerala because of lack of government sensitivity towards their welfare in original villages. Giving specific instances, Kirity Roy, secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), said, if the Border Security Force (BSF) had not put any restriction on agricultural activities, and if villages had properly implemented welfare schemes, these people would never migrate to other States. Text: I want to attract your immediate attention to the inhumane condition of the migrated workers of Gobra village, Swarupnagar Block in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal to seek your urgent intervention to protect the rights of these people. Gobra is a village situated near the Indo-Bangladesh Border where the border fencing is about 500 meters i

Bangladesh 'rights violations': US softens stance, fears increased clout of China, India

By Tilottama Rani Charulata* In December 2021, in addition to the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the United States imposed sanctions on seven former and current officers of the force, alleging serious human rights violations. Benazir Ahmed and former RAB-7 commander Miftah Uddin Ahmed were banned from entering the US. RAB as an institution was also canceled the support it was getting from the US and its allies. At the same time, those under the ban have been notified of confiscation of assets held abroad. The anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of the Bangladesh Police, RAB is the elite force consisting of members of the Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Police, Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Air Force, Border Guard Bangladesh, Bangladesh Civil Service and Bangladesh Ansar, and has been criticized by rights groups for its use of extrajudicial killings and is accused of forced disappearances. The government of Bangladesh has been insisting about lifting the ban on RAB, but the US had till recen

Counterview

Search This Blog