Let me begin at the very beginning by pointing out that Arun Jaitley who is not just the Finance Minister of India now in Narendra Modi’s term as PM but also was Law Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s term as PM and also was an eminent Supreme Court senior lawyer before venturing in politics has now finally been elected to Rajya Sabha as MP from UP. This is really a very good news for the state of UP as a whole. Who can be better than Arun Jaitley to raise the unheard voice of millions of people from different parts of Uttar Pradesh?
Let me be candid enough to admit that I have myself noticed that Arun Jaitley’s election as MP from Uttar Pradesh has suddenly brought a very big smile on the face of many lawyers especially from Western UP! They now feel that their more than 70-year-old legitimate demand for a high court bench in West UP will be effectively raised in Parliament by none other than the best Speaker – Arun Jaitley himself! They recall that it was at the assurance of Arun Jaitley that in 2014-15 that they had ended their 3-4 months of strike demanding a high court bench in West UP but as Modi himself had assured the lawyers of Allahabad that no decision on bench would be taken without their consent that this all-important-issue once again got struck!
Arun Jaitley being a lawyer himself knows fully well how the litigants from West UP in more than 26 districts have to travel more than 700 to 800 km all the way to Allahabad many times without reservation all the way to Allahabad to attend court hearings and face innumerable woes which they would never have faced if a high court bench was established in any of the 26 districts of West UP! He also knows that most of these districts are so close to Delhi like Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, etc yet for attending court hearings people who have to go to high court for any work are compelled to travel not to Delhi High Court but to Allahabad High Court which is so far away as there is not even a single bench here of high court! The lawyers of West UP are sure now that Arun Jaitley will raise their legitimate age old demand for a high court bench in Parliament most effectively!
Why talk about lawyers of West UP alone? Even the lawyers of Bundelkhand too are very happy as they too feel that now Arun Jaitley will raise their demand for a high court bench in Jhansi also! Not just this even the lawyers from Gorakhpur will now feel that their legitimate age old demand for a high court bench which none other than present UP CM Yogi Adityanath had himself raised very effectively long time back about 20 years ago in 1998 when he was MP representing Gorakhpur will again be raised by Arun Jaitley as he is Rajya Sabha MP from UP! Even the lawyers of Varanasi too will feel that Arun Jaitley will raise their voice for a high court bench which is the Prime Minister’s constituency and yet has no high court bench!
It may be recalled here that Dr Satyapal Singh who is former Mumbai Police Commissioner and represents Baghpat constituency as MP and was also made a Union Minister recently had last year demanded strongly right inside Parliament the setting up of 5 high court benches at least in UP at Meerut, Agra, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Jhansi! He has an absolutely valid point! UP is one of the biggest state of India with maximum pending cases from where maximum MPs and MLAs are elected and yet has least high court benches in India only one at Lucknow!
It was rightly pointed out in the Dainik Jagran newspaper in Hindi sometime back that the pending cases in Allahabad High Court is 17 lakh and the number of pending cases is steadily increasing still there is just one Bench of High Court and that too created by Jawaharlal Nehru way back in 1948 on July 1 at Lucknow which is just about 150-200 km away from Allahabad and nowhere else! It must be placed on record that no other state has not even 16 lakh or 15 lakh or 14 lakh or 13 lakh or 12 lakh or 11 lakh or 10 lakh or 9 lakh or 8 lakh or 7 lakh or 6 lakh or 5 lakh or 4 lakh or 3 lakh or even 2 lakh cases yet some states like Assam and Maharashtra have 4 High Court Benches and Karnataka has 3 Benches and UP most shockingly has just one bench near Allahabad! How ridiculous!
It has been one year since Yogi Adityanath came to power but we don’t see BJP setting up a Bench anywhere not just in West UP but anywhere in UP! Who can be better than Arun Jaitley to demand that when one bench can be created in Lucknow in 1948 then why can’t more benches be created 70 years later in 2018 in different parts of UP when we all know fully well that UP has maximum population more than 22 crore as CM Yogi keeps proudly declaring every now and then, maximum pending cases in High Courts more than 17 lakhs, maximum pending cases in lower courts more than 62 lakhs, maximum PM, maximum MPs, maximum MLAs, maximum Mayors, maximum districts, maximum tehsils, maximum villages more than one lakh, maximum cities, maximum crime, maximum lawlessness which even UN secretary General Ban ki moon had slammed as the “rape and crime capital of India”, maximum riots, maximum Judges, maximum courts and what not still has just one High Court Bench created by our first PM Jawaharlal Nehru way back in 1948 at Lucknow and not anywhere else even 70 years later! This despite the fact that former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had thundered in Parliament way back in 1986 as Opposition Leader demanding the creation of a High Court Bench in West UP and Yogi Adityanath who is now UP CM also himself thundered while demanding for a High Court Bench at Gorakhpur way back in 1998 right inside Parliament but 20 years later we don’t see any High Court Bench anywhere being created other than the one which Nehru created 70 years ago in 1948 at Lucknow!
Arun Jaitley will now certainly demand that when for just 6 districts of Kolhapur, Solapur, Ratnagiri, Satara, Sangli and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra the Centre has approved a highcourt bench at Kolhapur then why nopt for 26 districts of West UP and why not for other regions of UP like Gorakhpur, Bundelkhand etc? Jaitley will certainly ask that Allahabad High Court is the oldest and also the biggest court in whole of Asia and still has just one high court bench which is minimum in whole of Asia then why can't more high court benches be created in UP in different parts as Rajnath Singh who is Union Home Minister also wants which he vindicated also recently when he asked the delegation of senior lawyers from Agra meeting him that if a high court bench is created in parts other than Agra apart from Agra then do they have any problems and lawyers of Agra kept quiet implying that they had no problems with it as long as a bench is established in Agra! Lawyers all across UP will now be happy that now their voice for a high court bench in different parts of UP will be most effectively raised inside Parliament as now Arun Jaitley will not be MP from Amritsar from where he had contested earlier but now he will be a Rajya Sabha member from UP and not from Punjab or any other state of India! Why talk about just high court bench issue alone? Even on other issues affecting common man in UP, Arun Jaitley will raise their voice prominently in Parliament as people reasonably expect also and I am sure that he won’t disappoint them!
Let me add a caveat here: It may be that he may raise other issues also which may come to his notice. Jaitley has many other important issues also afflicting common man which he will certainly now raise in Parliament! But one thing is certain: He cannot now feign ignorance on the all important issue of setting up more high court benches in different parts of UP! Now the MPs from different parts of UP will meet him more confidently because he is MP not from Punjab or Assam or Gujarat or Karnataka or any other state but from UP and so the bond between MPs and MLAs of UP and Jaitley who is now MP from UP will further deepen and this is certainly good news not for just UP but for whole of India because UP represents the heart of India which no one can ever deny! Jaitley fully knows that if heart fails the whole body fails similarly if UP fails which is the heart of India then whole India fails which alone explains why PM Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Home Minister Rajnath Singh are all from UP! This is why he has preferred UP! Wish him always the very best in all his future endeavours!
Sanjeev Sirohi, Advocate,
s/o Col BPS Sirohi,
A 82, Defence Enclave,
Sardhana Road, Kankerkhera,
Meerut – 250001, Uttar Pradesh.
