Ladakh's High Court bench holds its first regular sitting in Leh

The Ladakh bench of the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court held its first regular sitting in Leh on Wednesday, 21 October, three days after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant formally inaugurated it. Court officials called the day a milestone for a region whose litigants have until now been obliged to go to Srinagar or Jammu for a hearing.

Justice Sanjay Parihar and Chief Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati made up the first division bench. According to a Press Trust of India report, the Chief Justice joined by video link while Justice Parihar sat in the courtroom in Leh, so the hearing was a hybrid one. After five division bench matters were heard, Justice Parihar took up around 60 matters before a single judge. He said 65 cases had been listed for the day, which he described as a first step in organising hearings for people from Ladakh.

"Crossed the passes"

Inaugurating the bench on Sunday, 18 October, the Chief Justice of India said the High Court had "crossed the passes to reach Ladakh" so that the people of Ladakh no longer had to cross them to reach it. He presented the move as an application of the principle of access to justice.

Sitting at about 3,500 metres above sea level, the Leh bench is the highest in the country, he said. The High Court has identified 75 cases for listing before it, and the judges will take turns on the bench, officials told The Indian Express. Supreme Court judges M M Sundresh, P S Narasimha and Arun Palli, Attorney General R Venkataramani and the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh attended the inauguration.

How the bench came about

The legal groundwork was laid in late summer. President Droupadi Murmu promulgated a regulation on 28 August allowing the High Court to have a bench of its own in Leh, and on 5 October the High Court picked Leh as the venue for its sittings in the Union Territory, Bar & Bench reported. Until now the court has held sittings only at Srinagar and Jammu. It carries both names because Ladakh was separated from Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory in 2019.

What changes for litigants

Before the new bench, people from Leh, Kargil and other remote parts of Ladakh had to make long journeys to pursue cases, with the time and expense that implies. The Chief Justice said the Supreme Court will take up every Ladakh case on one day, once lawyers appearing before the Leh bench have adequate video-conferencing facilities. That would spare litigants a trip to New Delhi as well.

He also said he hoped the bench would encourage young people from Ladakh to take up law as a career. An official quoted by PTI said the start of hearings was welcome news for advocates in the Union Territory.

The first day also showed how the bench will work in its early weeks: a judge on site, a second judge joining remotely, and a limited list of cases.