Karnataka - Bangalore

An eventful year for the judiciary Report Card

Decentralising justice delivery: A file picture of Supreme Court Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan inaugurating the Circuit Bench of the Karnataka High Court in Dharwad.

BANGALORE: The year 2008 has been a memorable one not only for the Karnataka High Court but also for the judiciary in the State. There have been several epoch-making events but none as important as the commencement of the High Court circuit Benches at Dharwad and Gulbarga.

It had been a long pending demand from the people of north Karnataka for a Bench in their area. Dharwad and Gulbarga were in the race for establishment of the Bench. Three Chief Justices of the High Court were directly involved in the establishment of the Benches. If it was N.K. Jain who approved the establishment of the Benches at Dharwad and Gulbarga, his successor N.K. Sodhi laid the foundation stones. Mr. Sodhi’s successor, Cyriac Joseph, formally inaugurated the Benches in July this year.

Both the Benches were established and cases relating to the region/districts adjoining them have been transferred to them.

Another important milestone is the joint initiative taken by two of the three wings enshrined in the Constitution, the judiciary and the executive, in disposing of petty and compoundable cases.

In just a fortnight, the joint initiative which commenced in the last week of November has seen more than a lakh cases being disposed of. This is unheard of in a country where cases keep on accumulating and their disposal has become a headache.

The High Court has also decided to adopt from this year the case flow management system for all subordinate courts and tribunals. The system envisages a time frame under which cases must be heard and disposed of.

The year also saw the High Court going mobile when its Legal Services wing decided to spread legal awareness in all the villages. The authority has with it a bus specially designed by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) for spreading legal literacy. The bus will tour all the districts and help the authority spread the message of legal literacy to the masses. Enthused by the idea, the Government has promised two more buses to the authority.

The High Court has also seen the elevation of two of its sitting judges to the Supreme Court. The then Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph was elevated to the Supreme Court and H.L. Dattu (who hails from Karnataka and was a judge in the court till an year ago) was also a few days ago elevated to the Supreme Court.

Now, the senior-most judge from Karnataka, Justice S.R. Bannurmath, has been appointed Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court.

The senior most judge of the court (Court hall no. 2) Deepak Verma has been appointed Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court. Both these judges are expected to assume their new charge shortly.

On the judicial side, the High Court has seen several important cases coming up before it. Its verdict on speed governors for all transport vehicles is pending appeal before the Supreme Court.

Another important judgment was the issue over the language policy.

A Full Bench comprising Chief Justice, Cyriac Joseph, Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice N. Kumar delivered the landmark judgment striking down several clauses in the 1994 Government order making Kannada compulsory at primary school level for unaided private schools. This order too is pending decision in the Supreme Court.

Another important case relates to the ordering of a CBI inquiry into the Shiradi Ghat road scam. The case relating to Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) and whether HAL airport should be kept open is still pending in court. Another case is on Namma Metro. In both the cases, the Government has defended the projects and sought the dismissal of the petitions.

Towards the fag end of the year, Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) and its chairman H.D. Revanna petitioned the High Court against the Government. KMF wanted the Government not to interfere in its affairs and also permit it to hike the price of milk by Rs. 2 per litre.

The row over the appointment of Vice-Chancellor to Bangalore University, dispute between Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE) and the Government over the contentious Bangalore-Mysore Expressway, land acquisition by the KIADB for industries, widening of national highways in several districts, appointment of a search committee to look into the suitability of candidates to head Mysore University, the issue of Women’s University at Bijapur and elephant deaths in the State have come up before the High Court.

On the flip side, the bomb blasts at a court in Hubli and increased security at all courts following threats have put the common man to a lot of hardship.

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