Centre urges to set up Supreme Court bench in Shillong

SHILLONG, SEPT 27: The BJP Meghalaya State has urged the Centre to consider establishing of a bench of the Supreme Court at Shillong for the North East region.

In a letter to Union Minister of State for Law and Justice PP Choudhury recently, BJP state convenor of the department of law and legal affairs Tilok Dasgupta said, “To ensure an easy accessibility to the justice delivery system from the highest level by setting up the bench in Shillong, Meghalaya, is the need of the hour keeping in view the interest of the litigants from the region at large.”

Stating that it would not be out of context to mention that the position of the litigants from the state of Meghalaya is no better than others, he said that such litigants undergo similar agony in pursuing a matter before the Apex Court and other Tribunals not having benches in the region.

Referring to the various reports of the Law Commission of India in the past, Gupta said that the issue of having Benches of the Supreme Court of India in different regions of the country was raised so that the litigants particularly the ordinary litigants, even from remote places are not discouraged to approach the highest Court of Appeal in the country with minimum expenses.

He added, while the procedural wrangles as to the viabilities of considering the instant proposal had to be addressed in-depth, yet it cannot be denied that the Constitution of India which is a dynamic instrument is aimed at securing welfare of the people in all spheres of life including the last mile population through the different organs of the Government, hence sheer extant Rules or tenets cannot just become a stumbling block in the way of realizing the avowed objectives of the Constitution of India.

Also admitting that accessibility to justice delivery system has become easier with the regular functioning of smaller courts in every districts of the state and the High Courts as well, he said however, the accessibility to the highest Court of Appeal that is, the Supreme Court of India, has still remained a far cry to an innumerable number of ordinary litigants from the region owing to the distant seat of the Apex Court, duration of travel and additional expenditures involved therewith.

“Owing to that a litigant ultimately ends up spending more during the process than the actual required cost of litigation. The cost of litigation virtually becomes unbearable for those living in far-flung areas in the region where surface and air connectivity is yet to fully develop,” he added.

He also said that the agony of a litigant going to Delhi from a distant place like the North-East to attend a case in the Supreme Court cannot be over-emphasized as the litigants are required to spend huge amount on travel, bearing the expenses of the lawyer who had handled the matter before the High Court besides cost incurred for adjournments.

It is also a fact that in the face of such huge expenditures, many litigants who are either not solvent or affluent cannot pursue the battle beyond a certain point thus resulting in denial of justice which a welfare state like India can ill-afford, he stated.

By Our Reporter