HC Bench: Plea for review of judgment rejected

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, JAN. 31. The Kerala High Court on Monday dismissed a petition seeking to review its earlier judgment which rejected a plea for a direction to the Chief Justice to establish a Bench of the High Court in Thiruvananthapuram.

An appeal filed against the original judgment by Mr. R. Gopan, a lawyer, had been disposed of with the observation that he could move a review petition if the single judge had not dealt with certain points. Subsequently, the lawyer filed the review petition.

The main ground in the review petition was that the court was in error when it observed that sufficient materials were not on record which would enable the court to issue a direction to the Chief Justice.

The petitioner had referred to an old notification on the constitution of a Bench in Thiruvananthapuram by the Chief Justice under Sec. 51 of the State Reorganisation Act 1956 (a central act). The notification said the Chief Justice with the approval of the Government of Kerala ``appoints'' Thiruvananthapuram as a place where judges and division courts of the High Court may sit to dispose of such cases as may, from time to time, be specified on that behalf by the Chief Justice.

Dismissing the review petition, Mr. Justice P. K. Balasubramanyan said that unless clear details were made available, the court could not decide whether the notification was existing properly or not. Besides, the petitioner could not specify or clearly plead whether there was any other notification rescinding the earlier notification on the constitution of a Bench.

The judge said that if the Chief Justice in his wisdom thought that it was not necessary to specify any cases to be heard in Thiruvananthapuram, it could not be said that it was an ``exercise of arbitrary power or improper exercise of power''.

The judge observed that it was seen that the notification was issued by the Chief Justice 40 years ago. It was not now open to ``canvass the correctness of the notification''.

The judge reiterated the earlier observation that Kerala was a small State and Ernakulam was located at the centre of it. The distance between Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam was 229 km. The travelling time by train and road was four hours. There was also air connection between the two stations. Going by the Jaswanth Singh Commission report, it could not be said that the means of travel and communications in Ernakulam were inadequate to facilitate swift movement and communication.

The Commission report had said that it should be possible to cover the distance between two centres within eight to 10 hours either by rail or by bus. Here, within 10 hours, one could not only reach the High Court from Thiruvananthapuram but also go back. There was nothing to show that the current cost of travel was beyond the means of the common man.

The judge pointed out that persons living in Thiruvananthapuram did ``not suffer from economic or other disability based on which they do not have equal opportunity of securing justice from the apex judicial institution located in Ernakulam.''

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Regional
Previous : 6 die as bus rams tree near Tumkur
Next     : Tension at S.N. College, 70 students held