Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday moved a private member’s Bill in Lok Sabha seeking to establish permanent Benches of the High Courts in the State capital. In Kerala, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Goa, Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Chhattisgarh the State High Court is situated outside the capital city.
The private member’s Bill was moved in Lok Sabha, after a gap of nearly two years. The private member’s business had been pushed back due to multiple reasons, curtailed hours due to COVID-19 protocol, and disruptions due to Opposition protest. Mr. Tharoor’s ‘Establishment of permanent Benches of High Courts at State capitals Bill’ too had been pending since 2019.
Though the Bill is meant for the States concerned, it specifically mentions Kerala where the permanent seat is in Ernakulam which is nearly 200 km away from the capital Thiruvananthapuram.
Considerable expenses
Explaining the necessity for bringing such a legislation, the Bill says, “It has been observed that the State is a principal litigant in a majority of cases pending in various High Courts. This had led to State governments incurring considerable expenditure on account of travel allowance and leave allowance given to the government employees for travelling from State capitals to the places of principal seats of the High Courts concerned for depositions.”
Mr. Tharoor, in his Bill, argued that ever since the formation of the State of Kerala in 1956, there has been a demand for establishment of a permanent Bench at the capital.
