Easy access to justice main criterion for new courts: HC

The Bombay high court has held that the number of cases that might be available cannot be the sole criterion to establish lower courts at tehsil places and the state government can set up courts only after consulting the high court administration.

The fact that requisite number of cases will come up from an area cannot be the sole criterion to set up the courts of Additional District and Sessions Judge and civil judge senior division in any taluka (tehsil) place; easy access to justice should be a main criterion, it said.

The powers to establish the courts, wherever conferred on the state government, will have to be exercised only after consultation with the high court administration, said the division bench of Justices Abhay Oka and C.V. Bhadang in a recent judgment.

The view of the high court shall have primacy in such matters, the judges added.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Partur Advocate Bar Association demanding courts of District and Additional Sessions Judge as well as Civil Judge Senior

Division in Partur taluka of Jalna district of Maharashtra.

The Maharashtra government had the power to establish such courts and not the high court administration, it argued.

While rejecting the petition, the judges held that a proposal to establish courts at taluka places cannot be rejected only on the ground that the number of cases as per the quota fixed by the high court will not be available.

The issue of easy access to justice should be one of the main considerations, the judges observed.