National

Proposal for SC Bench in Chennai dropped?

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI March 2. Much to the disappointment of lawyers in the South, the Centre is understood to have dropped the proposal for the setting up of a Bench of the Supreme Court at Chennai following stiff opposition from the apex court.

According to highly-placed sources, the Government has not accepted a suggestion from the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs for amending the Constitution to pave the way for setting up regional benches of the apex court in Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai as it does not want to go against the wishes of the apex court in this regard as it will send wrong signals.

Following persistent demands from lawyers from the South and particularly from Tamil Nadu for having a regional Bench in Chennai, the Centre has been pleading with the Supreme Court for its approval for the proposal as it is mandatory under Article 130 of the Constitution.

Similar demands are being made by lawyers for regional Benches at Kolkata and Mumbai.

The full court of the apex court met in December 1999 and by a unanimous decision opined that having a Bench of the apex court in places other than Delhi would destabilise or affect its integrity.

The parliamentary committee which went into the issue observed that it was not at all convinced by the opinion of the Supreme Court and in July 2000 urged the Government to take up the matter with the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to reconsider setting up of regional benches of the Supreme Court.

Thereafter the Centre asked the CJI to reconsider the matter. In response to this the full court again met in April last and reiterated its earlier decision that setting up of regional benches will affect the court's unitary character.

When this was communicated to the committee, it rejected the Supreme Court's stand and wanted the Government to remove all hurdles (even by amending Article 130 of the Constitution) coming in the way of setting up of benches of the High Court.

But the Government after considering all aspects is stated to have turned down the suggestion for the present.

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