Trying to come clean of the demand to set up a High Court bench in western UP the Samajwadi Party government informed the Vidhan Sabhaon on Monday that the ball was in the court of Centre and the state government has already sent its recommendation to Union law Ministry. “The Centre has the authority to set up a bench of the Allahabad High Court in western parts of Uttar Pradesh and the state government had already sent its recommendation for the same,” Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said in a written reply in the state assembly.
Answering a question asked by BSP member Dharampal Singh and others he said that Uttar Pradesh government’s proposal is pending with the Union Government since 1995. The state has appealed to the Centre to set up the HC bench in western UP where ever it thinks it is feasible. “The then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh had written letters to Centre, first on November 7,1994 and then on September 5,1995, requesting the then Union Government to set up the High Court bench in Western UP. The State had not suggested any particular place but had left the Centre to take a final decision,” he said in the written reply.
The State said that in the seventh Schedule of the Constitution the Centre has the authority to set up the High Court bench and the state government has nothing to do with it. The lawyers in Agra and Meerut are on the warpath demanding setting up of the HC bench in their respective areas. The Centre too is shying away from taking a final call on this issue. The Union Government had repeatedly said that it is waiting for the UP government’s recommendation as where to set up the bench in west UP.