On November 29, 2018, hundreds of Ghaziabad lawyers staged a demonstration at the residence of local MP and Union Minister V.K. Singh and “locked” its gates, demanding a High Court Bench in western Uttar Pradesh.
The lawyers demanding setting up of a High Court Bench in any of the western UP cities, including Meerut, Agra or Saharanpur, said that even the Lahore High Court is closer to these cities than the State’s main High Court at Allahabad.
They said it would be better to put some of the NCR districts of West U.P. under the Delhi High Court’s jurisdiction.
Ghaziabad Bar Association (GBA) president Anil Pandit said before the 2014 general elections, Mr. Singh had promised to work for the four-decade-old demand, but nothing has come out of it.
GBA’s former president Sudhir Tyagi, explaining the need for a High Court Bench in western U.P. said that the Allahabad High Court is catering to litigants from 72 out of 80 districts in Uttar Pradesh. Moreover, the Lucknow Bench of the High Court caters to just eight districts around the State capital, adding a High Court Bench anywhere in the western U.P. would serve the litigants from at least 22 districts, he added.
Pointing that driving distance from Saharanpur to Allahabad is over 800 km, while Lahore is at around 400 km, Mr. Tyagi said that “Even the Lahore High Court is closer to Saharanpur than the one at Allahabad.”
UP’s former Home Minister Baleshwer Tyagi in the Kalyan Sing-led BJP government, said that if the demand for a High Court Bench in western UP is not met in time, then it may trigger a movement leading to another bifurcation of the state.
