Nagpur: City-based lawyer Adv. Sandeep Badana has urged Chief Justice of India Bhushan Gavai to treat his representation dated October 25 as a public interest litigation (PIL), seeking the establishment of a permanent bench of the Supreme Court in Nagpur.
Adv. Badana argued that litigants from the southern, eastern, and western regions of India are compelled to travel hundreds of kilometres to New Delhi to approach the Supreme Court, resulting in significant expenses, time loss, and mental stress.
He further pointed out that the absence of decentralisation has contributed to a sharp rise in the number of pending cases before the apex court, which now exceeds 85,000. This growing backlog, he said, has also placed enormous workload pressure on the judges.
Referring to previous efforts, Adv. Badana cited that Dr. Vijay Darda, Chairman of the Editorial Board of Lokmat Media Group, had introduced a Bill in the Rajya Sabha in 2014 during his tenure as a Member of Parliament. The Bill, introduced under Article 130 of the Constitution, proposed a permanent Supreme Court bench in Nagpur to handle cases from Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Goa, Puducherry, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Adv. Badana’s memorandum also referenced this earlier Bill and the recommendations of the 10th, 11th, and 229th Law Commissions, all of which had supported decentralising the Supreme Court to make justice more timely, accessible, and affordable for citizens across the country.
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