Maha to pursue demand for permanent HC bench in Kolhapur: Fadnavis

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday told the Legislative Assembly that the state government will pursue the demand for setting up a permanent bench of the Bombay High Court in Kolhapur.

“We will seek a circuit bench until a permanent bench is set up,” Fadnavis said in the House while replying to a debate on the issue of setting up of the Kolhapur bench of the HC, through a calling attention notice.

He said that the government has no power to take decision regarding setting up a separate bench or a circuit bench in Kolhapur in western Maharashtra.

“It is the prerogative of the high court. We can only make a request, appeal and pursue the demand. There is also a demand for a separate bench for Pune,” the CM said while replying to supplementaries during the discussion.

Fadnavis recalled that when the Aurangabad bench of the high court was to be set up, there were differences among judges and the high court had stayed the decision. He said the stay was vacated by the Supreme Court. Fadnavis, who also holds Law and Judiciary portfolio, said the demand for Kolhapur bench was long pending.

“The government will take up the matter again with the chief justice of the high court. Report of a three-member panel of then chief justice Mohit Shah regarding the demand has not been received by the state government yet,” he added.

The demand for a permanent high court bench in Kolhapur is being made to cater to six districts of Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Solapur, Ratnagiri, and Sindhudurg. Legislators of Shiv Sena and BJP from Kolhapur, including Rajesh Khirsagar, Sujit Minchekar, Chandradeep Narke, and Suresh Halvankar said the pendency of cases in the Bombay HC is over 62,000 from these six districts.