CJI Gavai inaugurates Bombay HC’s 4th bench in Kolhapur

Chief Justice of India B R Gavai inaugurated the Bombay High Court’s new circuit bench in Kolhapur, easing the burden on litigants from six districts. The bench, functional from August 18, includes one division bench and two single benches

Mumbai: Chief Justice of India B R Gavai on Sunday inaugurated the Bombay High Court’s new circuit bench in Kolhapur district.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde were present on the occasion.

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The setting up of the fourth bench in Kolhapur comes amid demands from various quarters over the years so as to ease the burden on litigants and lawyers who have to travel to Mumbai, located 380 km away, for hearing of their pleas.

At present, apart from the principal bench in Mumbai, the HC has two more benches — at Nagpur in Vidarbha region and Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) in the State’s Marathwada region.

A third bench of the high court sits in adjoining Goa.

On August 1, a notification was issued by Bombay HC’s Chief Justice Alok Aradhe appointing Kolhapur as a circuit bench.

The Kolhapur bench will be functional from Monday (August 18) with a division bench and two single benches.

The new bench will have jurisdiction over six districts – Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg (last two located in coastal Konkan region).

The Kolhapur division bench will comprise Justices M S Karnik and Sharmila Deshmukh, while Justices S G Dige and S G Chapalgaonkar will preside over the single benches.

The division bench is expected to hear matters including Public Interest Litigations, civil writ petitions, first appeals, family court appeals, contempt appeals as well as all other civil and criminal matters from the districts of Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg.

The single bench of Justice Dige will hear criminal appeals, criminal revision applications, bail applications and other criminal matters.

Justice Chapalgaonkar will preside over a single bench hearing civil writ petitions, civil applications and other civil matters assigned to a single judge.