Lawyers oppose govt's move to make two new judicial districts

Terming the move as "unwarranted," and maintaining that it would only increase the burden on the state exchequer and cause more miseries to the the litigants, a coordination panel all bar associations of Delhi urged the government to withdraw its proposal to form two more judicial and revenue districts.

"Lawyers urge upon the Delhi Government to withdraw its recommendations for forming two more judicial districts and instead, it should adopt present nine election districts, already formulated by the Election Commission of India for adopting boundaries for independent nine sessions division," said Rajiv Khosla, former spokesperson of coordination committee, in a statement.

The decision to create 11 districts was taken in a state Cabinet meeting recently. The new judicial and revenue districts to be formed are New Delhi, South Delhi, Kalkaji, Seelampur, East Delhi, Preet Vihar, Najafgarh, West Delhi, North Delhi, Central Delhi and Saraswati Vihar.

The statement said the Delhi government, "blindly working in collusion with the Delhi High Court" to "please the judiciary," had taken an anti-public and anti-lawyer decision in its cabinet meeting on July 16 to make two more independent District and Sessions division here.

"They have done it without understanding repercussions on the public as well as lawyers practicing in district courts who are already facing lots of difficulties in attending their cases at far-flung areas resulting into frequent adjournments and causing grave inconvenience to all," it said.

The lawyers also appealed to the government to take Cabinet decision to transfer original pecuniary jurisdiction upto Rs 20 lakhs in civil disputes to district courts from the high court for providing relief of speedy justice.