SC rejects proposal for setting up benches outside Delhi

By T. Padmanabha Rao

NEW DELHI, MAY 24. ``The Chief Justice of India has intimated that a full court meeting of the Judges of the Supreme Court of India, which met on December 15, 1999, to discuss the Government's proposal for setting up of Benches of the Apex Court at all the four regions, has opposed the proposal,'' according to a Government press release. The Supreme Court was reportedly of the view that setting up of benches outside Delhi would affect the structural and financial integrity of the institution.

Under Article 130 of the Constitution, ``The Supreme Court shall sit in Delhi or in such other places or places as the Chief Justice of India may, with the approval of the President, from time to time appoint.''

The Government, sometime ago, had referred the matter to the Supreme Court following the recommendation of the Department Related Standing Committee of Parliament on Home Affairs in its 56th Report (1999) on the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs that Benches of the Supreme Court in Southern, Western and North Eastern parts of the country be set up so that people of far flung areas get easy access to the Apex Court.

The Law Commission of India in its 125th Report ``on the Supreme Court - A Fresh look,'' observed that ``the Supreme Court sits at Delhi alone. Government of India on couple of occasions sought the opinion of the Supreme Court of India for setting up a Bench in the South. This proposal did not find favour with the Supreme Court. The result is that those coming from distant places like Tamil Nadu in the South, Gujarat in the West an Assam and other States in the East have to spend huge amount on travel to reach the Supreme Court. There is a practice of bringing one's own lawyer who has handled the matter in the High Court to the Supreme Court. That adds to the cost. And an adjournment becomes prohibitive. Adjournment is a recurrent phenomenon in the Court.''

Besides, the Governments of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka had suggested that a Bench of Supreme Court may be established in the respective State Capitals for South India. In addition, the Chief Minister of Tripura, in August 1983, had requested, the Government of India for acceptance of a resolution passed by the Bar Association of Calcutta High Court urging establishment of a Bench of Supreme Court at Caluctta. Added to this, the Law Ministers of the Eastern and the North Eastern States adopted a resolution unanimously in their meeting at Calcutta on October 4, 1996 that it was essential for the Supreme Court to sit at a suitable place in their region to promote equal opportunity to all in operation of its legal system.

The Parliamentary Committee in its latest 61st report had reiterated its earlier recommendations urging the Government of India to take up the matter again with the Chief Justice of India.

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