High Court Bench in West UP: Demand for Access to Justice and Constitutional Equality

Go to Supreme Court to Get a High Court Bench in West UP: UP CM

West UP High Court Bench Demand

“We have been pursuing most relentlessly the most legitimate and most compelling demand for the High Court Bench in West UP for many decades. People from this region have to travel to Prayagraj for justice, which involves considerable time and expense. If the government says it cannot provide a bench, the responsibility cannot simply be shifted elsewhere. We will intensify our democratic and legal struggle until the demand is addressed. The delegation of advocates submitted a memorandum to CM Yogi Adityanath, who told them the government could not provide a bench and advised them to approach the Supreme Court.”

Mr. Anuj Sharma, who is president of the Meerut Bar Association and also chairman of the Central Action Committee comprising lawyers of 22 districts

Meerut Lawyers and the High Court Bench Demand

For the first time in the last 25 years that I have been in Meerut, I have noticed that there is the most huge seething tsunami of anger among lawyers of West UP against BJP for so brazenly bulldozing the most legitimate and most pressing demand for a High Court Bench in West UP, which has been most unfairly denied since the last 80 years of independence, while not taking even a year after independence to create a permanent seat of High Court Bench in Lucknow for just 12 districts, even though Allahabad High Court is so close to Lucknow. Not only just this much but also litigants of 30 districts of West UP and hilly areas of undivided UP attached with not even Lucknow but right up till Allahabad, which falls even farther away than Lucknow from West UP, which culminated in the partition of UP 26 years ago when many people of hilly areas of undivided UP sacrificed their precious lives as they had to travel thousands of kilometers all the way till Allahabad to seek justice, which in itself is the biggest betrayal of the Constitution and the most merciless butchering of equality as enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution and so also the deepest burial of justice and, in addition, the worst mockery of the poorest litigants of West UP and hilly areas of undivided UP! At a general body meeting on September 22, 2026, the lawyers of the Meerut Bar Association resolved to bar BJP-elected representatives and office bearers from entering the court complex. It also decided to initiate the withdrawal of vakalatnamas (a written legal document that a client signs to authorize a lawyer or advocate to represent them in a court of law) filed by its members for serving and former BJP representatives in various courts, including MP-MLA courts. Mr. Anuj Kumar Sharma, who is president of the Meerut Bar Association, said the decisions followed a meeting between a nine-member delegation and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Mr. Parvez Alam, who is the General Secretary of the Meerut Bar Association, also expressed his huge disappointment at this fresh, unpalatable episode in which MPs and MLAs and senior leaders of the BJP maintained a deafening silence and said that lawyers were interrupted while they were speaking by the UP CM, which really even makes me hang my head in shame! This is definitely most baffling indeed!

Centre and the High Court Bench in West UP

What leaves me completely flabbergasted is to see how ruthlessly Centre has most openly chosen to ride roughshod over the most legitimate and compelling demand of the High Court Bench in West UP, which makes for the most depressing reading! How long will the Centre keep ensuring that the creation of a High Court Bench in West UP remains struck in a rut? What is even more baffling to note is that while the Centre did not allow even one High Court Bench in undivided UP even though the Justice Jaswant Singh Commission recommended a maximum of three High Court Benches—a permanent seat in West UP and two Circuit Benches in hilly areas of undivided UP—yet not even one was created, which culminated in the partition of Uttar Pradesh 26 years ago as people started huge agitations due to its non-implementation, and many sacrificed their precious lives, and then the same Centre conceded separate Statehood itself named Uttarakhand with a population of just about 88 lakh people, and then a separate High Court and a separate Capital—no Punjab and Haryana formula of the same High Court and the same Capital! If the center had ensured the creation of two circuit benches in hilly areas of undivided UP, UP would never have been partitioned! This shows the utter contempt with which the Centre has treated West UP and the hilly areas of undivided UP until people of the hilly areas took to the streets and many sacrificed their precious lives! Centre then ensured creation of High Court Bench in Aurangabad as recommended by Justice Jaswant Singh Commission which already had multiple High Court Benches at Nagpur and Panaji and so also at Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and Madurai in Tamil Nadu yet most astoundingly Apex Court never took suo motu cognizance of it nor even now last year when fifth High Court Bench created in Kolhapur in Maharashtra even though Maharashtra population is more than half less than UP and very near to West UP and pending cases even less than West UP!

Article 14 And Equality In High Court Benches

How long will Centre keep putting the Bench issue in West UP back in the box? Why has the Centre made an “open and shut” case into an intractable case? The nation belongs, without qualification, to every citizen, and the right to equality is a fundamental right under Article 14 of the Constitution. Then why has the Centre conferred only five elite states—Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, and West Bengal—to have multiple High Court Benches, and on what grounds? What is always in the back of my mind is why the center is so deadly biased. What I am underlining is that the Centre’s approach is not just flawed but also completely biased, for which the Centre cannot ever be given a clean chit! Even the Supreme Court has definitely not crowned itself with glory by never taking suo motu cognizance of it!

High Court Benches in Ladakh, Maharashtra, and West UP

When a High Court Bench can be created in Ladakh for just 2 districts till March 2026 and increased to 7 from April 2026, just like the Fifth High Court Bench created in Maharashtra at Kolhapur for just 6 districts, which started functioning on August 18, 2025, then why does West UP, with 30 districts, have not even a single bench with more than 10 or 11 crore people, which is more than all these five elite states, and West UP alone has more pending cases than all the other states? The point that I am trying to underscore here is how long will such a most pressing issue be kept in endless limbo by the center?

Distribution Of High Court Benches And Access To Justice

The larger question here is, how long will the Apex Court keep watching this most open nepotism and blatant discrimination in the distribution of High Court benches in different states and different regions happening right under the nose of the judiciary? The worst part is neither the national press, including news channels, highlighted it, nor has the Apex Court ever dared to take suo motu cognizance of it! Eminent and senior advocate and former judge of Delhi High Court and former chief justice of Orissa High Court—Hon’ble Mr Justice (Retd) S Muralidhar very rightly opined that, “If the court itself and its processes turn into sites of oppression, it will undermine the faith of the people in the justice system and its ability to deliver fair and equal justice.” It is an incontrovertible fact that West UP should have been bestowed High Court Bench since 1947, as it owes for the majority of pending cases of Allahabad High Court, but even as 2047 is fast approaching, we see most disappointingly that the Centre appears in just no mood to relent, and the top court is not taking suo motu cognizance of it, while Eastern UP has High Court Bench in Lucknow since July 1948, so close to Allahabad High Court!

Supreme Court and suo motu cognizance

Why does the Apex Court never step in to check misuse of unbridled power of the Centre to discriminate most mercilessly between different states and different regions in distribution of High Court Benches, which is the worst butchering of Article 14 as enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution? The point that I am trying to underscore here is how long will such a most pressing issue be kept in limbo by the center? What hobbles, hackles, and harangues my mind is why the Centre is most dead determined never to allow even a single bench in West UP with more than 10 crore people when it can ensure that states like Karnataka, with just 6 crore people, have a high court and multiple high court benches? The question on everyone’s lips is why the 230th Report of the Law Commission of India has not been implemented uniformly all across India even after 17 years of its report being submitted.

Political Representatives and the West UP Bench Demand

On a more serious note, common sense dictates that West UP must have two High Court Benches as demanded by ruling party BJP MP Laxmikant Vajpayee in Parliament two times this year in 2026 at Meerut and Agra and so also in 2016 by ruling party former Union Minister Dr. Satyapal Singh in Parliament at again Meerut and Agra! Even former PM Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee also demanded a High Court Bench in West UP at Meerut in 1986 as Leader of Opposition, which is all on record! Dr. BR Ambedkar had recommended separate statehood itself for West UP just like former UP CM Sampoornanand in 1955, Mayawati, among others! How long will the sword of uncertainty loom large over the most pressing issue of the creation of a High Court Bench in West UP?

Constitutional Equality and High Court Benches

The central question here is, how long will the Centre keep discriminating between different states and different regions without any prima facie reason to substantiate it? Today another question is unavoidable: How long will the Supreme Court desist from taking suo motu cognizance of this open cheating and most merciless, atrocious discrimination perpetrated in the distribution of High Courts, High Court Benches, and High Court Circuit Benches in different states and different regions with impunity by the Centre without ever being taken to task by the Apex Court, which definitely makes for the most depressing reading!

Lawyers’ Long-Running Struggle for a West UP High Court Bench

I am completely fed up and most utterly disgusted to see, since the last 25 years, that I have been in Meerut in West UP and how the lawyers of West UP have been most relentlessly agitating for the most sacred, most legitimate, and most compelling demand for the creation of a High Court Bench in West UP but to no avail! The lawyers of West UP went on a complete strike for 6 months, sacrificing their own livelihood, when I just landed in Meerut for the creation of a High Court Bench in West UP, and again for 6 months in 2014-15, apart from striking every Saturday since last more than 45 years ago, and many times even on Wednesday, as we see even now, there is still no action we witness on the ground, most astoundingly!

West UP Bench And Constitutional Issues

It is hard not to conclude that the Centre has been most deadly biased and has left no stone unturned to ensure that West UP is deprived of having even a single High Court Bench, not even a Circuit Bench, while simultaneously not allowing even a year to pass after independence to create a single High Court Bench for the whole of undivided UP at Lucknow so close to Allahabad High Court in July 1948 and, worst of all, attaching litigants of 30 districts of West UP and hilly areas of undivided UP with not even Lucknow but right up to Allahabad! One can safely say that the curtains need to be brought down on this long-lending, most pressing issue! Why does the Centre find itself in a predicament in an “open and shut” case like this?

Case Pendency And Access To Justice In Uttar Pradesh

It is a matter of supreme irony that the most populated state of India, Uttar Pradesh, which tops the state list with the maximum number of pending cases, more than 12 lakhs, as conceded by the President of the Allahabad High Court Bar Association, Mr. Rakesh Pandey, has just one High Court Bench at Lucknow, so close to Allahabad in Eastern UP, which was created 78 years ago in July 1948, and West UP, which owes for the majority of pending cases to Allahabad High Court, has not even a single High Court Bench, not even a Circuit Bench, and not only just this, but in addition, it has been attached to not even Lucknow, which falls much earlier but right up to Allahabad, to seek justice, which in itself is the biggest betrayal of the Constitution, the deepest burial of justice, and the worst mockery of the poorest litigants of 30 districts of West UP, who have to travel whole night and nearly a day by train about 700 to 800 km on average, most shockingly! From a legal standpoint, it is UP, which tops the state list in having the maximum number of pending cases and so also has a population of more than 25 crores, and here too it is West UP, which owes for the majority of pending cases of UP, and still leaves alone the High Court, or the permanent seat of the High Court Bench, which has not even a circuit bench, as the center is just not ready to concede, most disgracefully! I often find myself battling with a moot question: Why is the Centre so hell-bent on denying West UP even a single bench and thwarting all chances of creating even a circuit bench most spinelessly without any remorse or regret? How can any sensible person in his right senses ever try to justify such an autocratic act?

Denial of a High Court Bench in West UP

It is not democratic but is most autocratic that the most populated State of India that is Uttar Pradesh which has maximum number of pending cases among all States even after partition of Uttar Pradesh in November 2000 and still has just one High Court Bench in Lucknow so close to Allahabad High Court for just few districts and nowhere else which is absolutely unbelievable and West UP despite owing for majority of pending cases of Allahabad High Court and contributing maximum to state economy is being accorded most step-motherly treatment by being denied even a single High Court Bench not even a Circuit Bench is most autocratic denial of a High Court Bench to West UP for 80 years after India became independent in 1947 and as if this was not enough attached litigants of 30 districts of West UP with not even Lucknow but right uptill Allahabad to seek justice which is most baffling indeed!

West UP Litigants And Access To Justice

One is constrained to observe that denying West UP even a single bench, not even a circuit bench, is the “worst travesty of justice,” which puts on the dock the whole life of litigants and their families for no fault of others! The irony could not have been more starker and more murkier! It is West UP, which ideally should have been vested with the High Court itself, as the majority of the pending cases of Uttar Pradesh are from West UP, which is all on record, yet what is most astounding to watch is that it has not even a single High Court Bench permanent seat, and what is worst of all is to see that it has not even a single High Court Circuit Bench! It is known all too well, even though many still don’t know, that a permanent seat of the High Court Bench for Lucknow in Central UP was created just a few years ago for just a very few districts, not even in double digits, when it was created way back in July 1948, so close to Allahabad High Court, without dishing any frivolous excuses like we have been seeing since last more than five decades. For West UP, with 30 districts and more than 10 crore people, which is the maximum number of districts among all regions of UP, it owes the majority of pending cases to Allahabad High Court, and as if this was not enough, it contributes a maximum of about 75 to 80 percent of the state’s economy, and the reward it has got is not even a single permanent seat of the High Court Bench in West UP nor even a Circuit Bench in West UP! To top it all, the litigants of West UP have been attached with not even Lucknow, which falls much earlier, but right up till Allahabad, which is 230 km away from even Lucknow, which is the biggest betrayal of the Constitution, the biggest national disgrace, and the deepest burial of justice and the worst mockery of the poorest litigants of 30 districts of West UP and the hilly areas of undivided UP. As long as it formed part of UP, it made practically just no sense at all and culminated in the most unfortunate partition of Uttar Pradesh 26 years ago, as people had to travel thousands of kilometers all the way till Allahabad, and even though Justice Jaswant Singh Commission, headed by a former Supreme Court Judge appointed by the Centre itself, recommended about 50 years ago two circuit benches for the hilly areas of undivided UP at Dehradun and Nainital, yet not even a single one was created. It is most atrociously just like a permanent seat of the High Court Bench recommended for West UP at Agra, yet not even a circuit bench was created anywhere to date! Only time will tell when the endless wait for even a single High Court Bench in West UP ever ends. Former Attorney General of India—Late Soli J. Sorabjee, in his capacity as Attorney General, had said that “the Centre is empowered to create a High Court Bench in West UP without any recommendation from the Chief Justice or Chief Minister or anyone else in this regard.” Former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association MN Krishnamani had very categorically stated that “Only by the creation of a bench of the high court in West UP will the people be able to secure justice.”

High Court Bench Comparisons Mentioned in the Article

We saw how the Centre gave separate statehood itself with a separate High Court at Hyderabad to Telangana with just 3.5 crore people in June 2014 and so also earlier to many states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, among others, whose population is more than 6 or 7 crore, less than West UP, and still have separate High Courts! Karnataka, with just 6 crore people, was given two High Court Benches for just 4 and 8 districts at Dharwad and Gulbarga in 2008 itself, and now the Bench is recommended for Mangaluru by the State Government for just 3 districts! How long will Centre Pat sit on the back that UP, which tops the state list, has just one High Court Bench created 78 years ago, so close to Allahabad High Court at Lucknow, where it was just not needed at all and nowhere else, not even when UP was undivided, even though West UP owes for the majority of pending cases to Allahabad High Court?

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Allahabad High Court Pendency and Long-Pending Cases

How can the Centre gloss over that in a startling revelation? The Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal revealed in July 2026 that while the Apex Court had 26 cases pending for more than 30 years, the 25 High Courts together had 80,660 such cases. Most strikingly and most alarmingly, we see that it was disclosed that Allahabad High Court alone accounted for 53,787 cases of them—nearly two out of every three cases pending for over three decades in the nation’s High Courts. The figure based on the National Judicial Data Grid as of July 16, 2026, also shows that the Allahabad High Court has the highest overall pendency among all High Courts at 1.22 million cases, owing for roughly one-fifth of the total pendency across all 25 High Courts. Of these, 161,000 have been pending for more than 20 years, 488,000 for over 10 years and 730,000 for more than five years. While Allahabad High Court accounts for roughly one-fifth of the total pendency across all 25 High Courts (1.22 million out of 6.47 million cases), it alone houses around 67% of all cases pending for over 30 years, more than one-third of cases older than 20 years, and about 30% of all cases pending for over a decade. Here too it is West UP, which alone owes for the majority of pending cases of the Allahabad High Court, as acknowledged by Justice Jaswant Singh’s Commission appointed by the Centre itself, which recommended a permanent seat of the High Court Bench in West UP, yet after 50 years, not even a circuit bench has been created anywhere in any of the 30 districts of West UP!

Center and the West UP Bench Issue

The point being made here is that it is the Centre, which most unscrupulously has been acting as the biggest stumbling block for the creation of the High Court Bench in West UP on one pretext or the other, which has only served to portray it in a poor light, just like being the biggest litigator has denigrated its reputation. How long will the Centre keep sabotaging and keep deferring the most compelling and most legitimate demand for a High Court Bench in West UP on one pretext or the other? The Centre’s decision to deprive West UP of even a single High Court Bench, not even a Circuit Bench, is bereft of any logic, and so the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of the Centre. For the exclusive benefit and indulgence of my esteemed readers, let me now lay bare how many regions or economic divisions and districts Uttar Pradesh falls in. They are as follows: –

Uttar Pradesh Regions and Districts

Source: Sam Samayik Ghatna Chakra Uttar Pradesh At A Glance 2026 on page 81 published from Allahabad

Continued Struggle By West UP Lawyers

I am completely fed up and most utterly disgusted to see since last 25 years that I have been in Meerut in West UP how the lawyers of West UP have been most relentlessly and most dedicatedly agitating for the most sacred, most legitimate and most compelling demand for creation of a High Court Bench in West UP but to no avail! The lawyers of West UP went on complete strike for 6 months sacrificing their own livelihood when I just landed in Meerut in 2001 for creation of a High Court Bench in West UP and again for 6 months in 2014-15 apart from strike every Saturday since last more than 45 years and many times even on Wednesday some years ago apart from so many other meetings for creation of High Court Bench in West UP still no action we witnessed on ground most astoundingly!

Need To Address The West UP Bench Issue

It is hard not to conclude that the Centre has been most deadly biased and has left no stone unturned to ensure that West UP is deprived of having even a single High Court Bench, not even a Circuit Bench, while simultaneously not allowing even a year to pass after independence to create a single High Court Bench for the whole of undivided UP at Lucknow so close to Allahabad High Court in July 1948 and, worst of all, attaching litigants of 30 districts of West UP and hilly areas of undivided UP with not even Lucknow but right up to Allahabad! One can safely say that the curtains need to be brought down on this long-lending, most pressing issue! Why does the Centre find itself in a predicament in an “open and shut” case like this?

The Broader High Court Bench Issue

If one looks at the whole picture, we see that it reflects a far deeper malaise, which now no more can be hidden from public gaze any longer. How long will the Centre keep downplaying and stonewalling the most legitimate and compelling demand for a High Court Bench in West UP and also in Orissa and Bihar and some other states? This is clearly a stark reminder of how much the Centre discriminates most ruthlessly yet is never held accountable even by the top court! Why does the Apex Court never take the Centre to task for it?

Supreme Court and Distribution of High Court Benches

How long will the Supreme Court abjectly keep playing second fiddle in front of the Centre and keep giving unfettered licenses to most horrendously and most mercilessly discriminate and perpetrate the most atrocious discrimination perpetrated in the distribution of High Courts and High Court Benches and High Court Circuit Benches in different states and different regions? Not a single High Court Judge of Allahabad High Court or Patna High Court or Jodhpur High Court or Cuttack High Court or Ahmedabad High Court, among others, nor even any Judge of the Supreme Court has ever dared to take suo motu cognizance of this most merciless butchering of equality as enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution! The biggest insane person on earth in his/her right senses will definitely never endorse what Congress and BJP have done, who have ruled in the Centre that just one High Court Bench for the most populated state of India with the maximum number of pending cases and that too so close to Allahabad High Court at Lucknow way back in July 1948 and deprived West UP from having not even a single High Court Bench, not even a single High Court Circuit Bench, which owes for the majority of pending cases of Allahabad High Court, which is all on record and has more than 10 crore people and 30 districts, and so also the attached litigants of 30 districts of West UP and the hilly areas of undivided UP with not even Lucknow but right up to Allahabad, which culminated in the partition of Uttar Pradesh 26 years ago, in which so many people sacrificed their lives, and yet the Supreme Court never dared to take suo motu cognizance of the non-implementation of justice. Jaswant Singh Commission recommendations, headed by a former Supreme Court Judge appointed by the Centre itself, recommended a maximum of 3 High Court Benches for undivided UP—two High Court Circuit Benches in Dehradun and Nainital and a permanent seat of High Court Bench in West UP—yet not even one was created anywhere, which is a national disgrace. Maharashtra already had multiple High Court Benches at Nagpur and Panaji; one more was created at Aurangabad as recommended within a very short span of time in the mid-1980s itself for just 7 districts, and now one more Fifth High Court Bench was approved for just 6 districts at Kolhapur, which started functioning on August 18, 2025, without any recommendations from any Commission. But in UP, not a single Bench was created in the last 78 years, and so also lawless Bihar has none, and Rajasthan only one, and Orissa and Gujarat none, and the Centre has equipped only five elite states—Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Assam, and Madhya Pradesh—with multiple High Court Benches, most astoundingly leaving prominent big states like UP, Rajasthan, and lawless Bihar out from the elite club!

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Media and Judicial Attention

It must be definitely asked upfront: Why does no judge of the Supreme Court ever dare to openly speak out on it? Most bone-chillingly, even the Supreme Court in the last 80 years of independence has never dared to take suo motu cognizance of it, and even the press, which is considered the fourth pillar of Indian democracy, including newspapers and news channels, also maintains a conspicuous inexplicable deafening silence on it and hardly ever accords any prime coverage to it! The most troubling question that crops up here is, why is the center just not willing and ready to address it? The center must stop dishing lame excuses and address it like it did last year in Kolhapur in Western Maharashtra for just 6 districts and now in Ladakh for just 7 districts! No denying or disputing it!

Speedy And Affordable Justice For West UP Litigants

At the crux of the problem is the most stubborn approach of the Centre and State Government in refusing to relent and acknowledge the clear writing on the wall! Why does the center have no empathy with the humongous problems faced by litigants of West UP due to no bench here? Speedy and affordable justice at doorsteps is the cornerstone of a democratic system, which definitely cannot be allowed to be strangulated by depriving litigants of West UP from having even a single bench! It is time for the Apex Court to take note of the big picture and act decisively to ensure that a High Court Bench is created in West UP at the earliest and the huge sufferings—physical, mental, and financial—faced by the litigants of West UP are not prolonged any longer now! No doubt, the earlier this is done, the better it shall be!

Conclusion: The Demand for a High Court Bench in West UP

To sum it up, Centre has to deliver now! How can the Centre abdicate its constitutional duty to ensure that the worst discrimination that has been perpetrated in the distribution of High Court Benches in different states and different regions is brought to an end altogether? How can the Apex Court also refuse to take suo motu cognizance of it, which directly pertains to the judiciary itself? There is no doubt that our highest court has mostly always stood up for its citizens and upheld the Constitution. One fondly and fervently hopes that the Apex Court will at least now boldly take suo motu cognizance of it at the earliest, as it is a blatant egregious violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, which envisages the right to equality as a fundamental right, yet most unfortunately on this count lies in tatters!

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