Leh: The country’s highest High Court bench, at 3,500 feet, will become operational from Wednesday. The Ladakh bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court was inaugurated by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Sunday.
“The High Court has today crossed the passes to reach Ladakh, instead of asking the people of Ladakh to cross the passes to reach it…we are some 3,500 metres above the sea, and I am told no High Court in our country has ever sat higher. Of course, what matters today is not how high this Court sits. What is important is how close it now stands to the people it serves,” the CJI said after inaugurating the bench at the High Court Complex, Melangthong, Leh, as reported by timesnow.in.
CJI Kant had opened new district court complexes in Leh and Kargil in March this year. These inaugurations are being seen as a historic milestone for the administration of justice in the Union Territory of Ladakh.
This will bring justice closer to the people of Ladakh, particularly those residing in remote and far-flung areas, by reducing the hardships, time and expenditure involved in travelling to Srinagar or Jammu for judicial proceedings.
Initially 75 cases have been identified for listing before the bench, which will initially function on two days a week, officials said.
The inaugural bench on October 21 will comprise Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court Chief Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati and Justice Sanjay Parihar. Judges will sit in rotation at the bench.
Before its establishment, litigants and lawyers from Ladakh had to cross treacherous mountain passes to reach the high court wings in Srinagar or Jammu.
Severe weather and heavy snowfall completely shut down these passes during winter, effectively blocking access to justice. By positioning a constitutional court at an altitude of about 3,500 metres — making it India’s highest High Court bench — the judiciary has practically “crossed the passes” to reach the people
Prior to this, Ladakh was the only Union Territory without a dedicated High Court bench at its doorstep.
“For close to a century, the High Court that served Ladakh sat beyond the Great Himalaya, reachable in winter only by air. For a widow fighting for her pension, a mother seeking to be reunited with her child, or a senior citizen seeking insurance claim; the journey often cost more than the lawyer. Many never made it at all, and for them, the right to approach the High Court remained a right on paper,” CJI Kant noted.
“I would like to make an announcement. Once video-conferencing facilities are adequately available to the lawyers of the Ladakh Bench, the Supreme Court shall list all matters coming from Ladakh on a single day, and hear them on day to day basis also through videoconferencing,” he added.
While concluding his speech, the CJI said: “Allow me to point out that somewhere in Ladakh today, in a classroom in Kargil or Nubra, there is a young child who will one day argue her first case in this Court, and perhaps even sit on its Bench as a Judge. When that day comes, we will know that this Bench has not merely arrived in Ladakh, but taken root here.”