Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today urged the Centre to consider the state's long-standing demand for a separate high court.
Addressing the conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts here, he said, "As per Article 214 of our Constitution, there shall be a High Court for each state. Haryana Vidhan Sabha has already passed a resolution for creation of a separate High Court for Haryana," he said.
He urged the government to bring necessary legislation to fulfill the demand of his state.
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Khattar said a separate high court can easily be created by bifurcating the existing building, staff and infrastructure, as was done in the case of Civil Secretariat and Legislative Assembly.
This is all the more important since the number of cases from Haryana far exceed that from Punjab, he said.
Currently, the High Court of Haryana & Punjab functions from Chandigarh, the joint capital of the two states.
He reiterated state government's stand to support the creation of All India Judicial Services on the pattern of All India Services.
He also drew the attention of the Central government for having equal representation in the High Court, claiming his state has "less than equal representation" in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He said there is an "unwritten norm" of having 60 per cent judges from Punjab and 40 per cent judges from Haryana, that is being followed.
"This practice is not only discriminatory in nature, but also has no sanction of law. I earnestly request the Chief Justice of India and the Acting Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court to end this discriminatory tradition and practice," the chief minister said.
He also raised the issue of creation of a bench of the high court near the National Capital Territory, saying Haryana borders the national capital from three sides and its 13 districts out of the total 21 fall in the National Capital Region.
Haryana is a centre of economic activity and resultantly legal activity is tilted towards the National Capital Region, he said. However, the present seat of the Punjab and Haryana High Court is on the opposite end of the state. This leads to loss of valuable time and resources of both the people and the government.
"I, therefore, request the Prime Minister to consider setting up of a separate Bench of the High Court near the National Capital Territory. I also request Chief Justice of India and Acting Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court to support this demand," he said.
He also stressed on the need for undertaking reforms to make the judicial system less expensive, quicker and more effective, adding the state government would wholeheartedly support any and every such reform measure.
