The legal luminaries from the six districts of WesternMaharashtra are protesting demanding a separate bench of the High Court inKolhapur.
Last week all the advocates from the six districts held athree day protest by boycotting courts in the area.
As part of a protest campaign in all the six districts, theadvocates’ association along with all political parties arranged protests onvarious fronts.
The demand for a separate bench of High Court in Kolhapurhas been hanging fire for the last 25 years.
N G Patil, a retired judge from Kolhapur questioned thesilence of political leaders, in spite of the huge protests all over the sixdistricts.
There are 15 to 16 judges who work in High Court and SupremeCourt and Kolhapur is a central place for all the six districts like Sangli,Satara, Solapur and Konakan region.
“There are around 5.82 lakh cases lying pending in all thecourts of the six districts. Some of the cases will also be in the High Court.Of these at least 90,000 cases are pending from the region,” informed SivajiraoRane the President of Kolhapur Bar Association.
He said that setting up of High Court bench in Kolhapur willreduce the time frame and expenses on cases.
“So far the protest was confined only to the lawyers.Henceforth we will involve people and intensify the protest,” Ajit Mohite,former chief of bar association said.
Local MLA, Chandrakantdada Patil has said that the protestwill not be called off until Kolhapur gets a High Court.
“The cost of staying in Mumbai is too high and justicedelayed is like denying it. The common man has to struggle to get justice dueto the long distance,” the MLA said.
