Creation of new districts; HC seeks response of Delhi govt

Taking note of a plea alleging non-adherence to concept of 'justice at the doorstep', the Delhi High Court today asked the city government to respond to creation of eleven districts and distribution of their jurisdiction over different areas in the national capital.
Dwarka Bar Association has moved the court against the Lieutenant Governor's (LG) decision to create eleven districts instead of nine existing ones.
It has also been alleged that the distribution of the jurisdiction has been done in such a manner that some of the courts have been established in far-away places.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw directed Delhi government to take instruction on the issue from the LG by October 29.

The plea has sought quashing of the notification on creation of new districts saying it has created anomalies in the distribution of jurisdiction of the district courts.
The bar association submitted that the "unequal and irrational" distribution of the jurisdiction has resulted into a few district courts getting more areas that it could easily deal with while the others had vacant courtrooms lying there.

Senior advocate Sudhanshu Batra and advocate Avnish Rana, appearing for the bar body, said "it had caused a great hardship to the litigants as they had to travel long distances to file cases because the courts having jurisdiction over their areas were far away from their residences, despite the fact that they had a district court located nearby their colonies."

"Therefore, the notification had not taken into account the proximity theory into account while deciding the jurisdiction of the different district courts," the plea said.
The petitioner also said that in pursuant to the High Court's earlier direction, the Dwarka Bar committee presented their reccomdentation before the LG for its notification but they put the issue in abeyance stating the report of the committee is incomplete as the public's views were not taken etc.
"...It was the same committee which has decided the larger issue of division of eleven districts just two years back and his predecessor has duly notified the same and no public view as opined by the LG taken by the bifurcation committee," the plea said.