Four-judge panel seeks details of district-wise pendency of cases

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 1

Less than a month after the Punjab and Haryana High Court constituted a four-judge committee for a separate Bench at Southern/Western Haryana, the board has begun its functioning.

Available information suggests it has called for the details of district-wise pendency of cases after holding its first meeting the previous week. It is believed that the district-wise details will help the committee study the need for a separate Bench.

Once the data is received, the member judges will know exactly the number of people coming to the High Court from southern and western Haryana.

Already the Acting Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Shiavax Jal Vazifdar, has assured lawyers that the committee was for carrying out a feasibility study.

The committee, comprising Justice Satish Kumar Mittal, Justice Hemant Gupta, Justice SS Saron and Justice Rajive Bhalla, was constituted by the Acting Chief Justice vide office order dated July 6.

The move came nearly five years after murmurs for a separate HC for Haryana had turned into an uproar with the then UPA government at the Centre supporting the move.

If in place, the Bench would bring justice closer to the people putting up in Southern and Western Haryana, including Mewat, Rewari, Bhiwani, Gurgaon and Faridabad. As of now, they have to travel all the way to Chandigarh for adjudication of their disputes before the HC. The development is also significant as a separate Bench would meet the long-pending demands of the people of Haryana without bifurcation of the High Court.

Successive governments in the state have all along been insisting that a separate HC was their “legitimate” and “constitutional” right. For a local Haryanavi involved in litigation, separate Bench may not only bring justice closer, but faster due to the reduced or limited workload.

Combined figures suggest more than 10 per cent of Punjab and Haryana population is affected by litigation. The number is higher than the national average; just about six per cent population in India is affected by litigation. Break the figures and the number of people involved in litigation in Haryana is reduced to less than half, as it is believed the ratio of cases between Punjab and Haryana is 60:40.