{"id":100227,"date":"2021-04-07T10:51:18","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T05:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=100227"},"modified":"2021-04-07T11:02:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T05:32:57","slug":"significance-of-circuit-benches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/significance-of-circuit-benches\/","title":{"rendered":"Significance of Circuit Benches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Virtual hearings started during the pandemic provided much relief. However, now focus should be on other measures like the establishment of circuit benches.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pandemic saw the initiation of virtual proceedings in the Supreme Court. It was because the physical hearing was not possible due to COVID-19 restrictions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This new method ensured fair and equal access to justice for many people. Now, many are demanding a continuation of this novel practice even in a post-pandemic scenario.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li>However, it will not be sufficient. For increasing accessibility more circuit benches<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>What are circuit benches?<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A dedicated place in Delhi is provided for the functioning of the Supreme Court (SC).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Constitutional makers wanted the Court to have a specified place of sitting so that litigants can approach it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They were also aware of the geographical constraints of India. Hence, they empowered the Chief Justice to establish circuit benches.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are temporary courts that hold proceedings for a few selected months in a year.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nonetheless, no circuit benches have been established despite<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/pendency-of-cases-and-rising-vacancies-in-the-judiciary-explained-pointwise\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> rising Pendencies<\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><b>The adverse impact of Fixed Location<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Denial of Justice:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Many litigants are discouraged to travel to Delhi from far away locations like south or northeast India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further, as per a report of Centre for Policy Research, a disproportionately high number of cases filed in the Supreme Court originates in <\/span><b>High Courts closer to Delhi<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Almost 18% of all cases in the Supreme Court originate from Punjab and Haryana. They have less than 5% of the total population share.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But States like West Bengal, Bihar, and Andhra Pradesh which make about 20% population, contributed to less than 10% of cases.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Appearance in SC<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has become an<\/span><b> exclusive domain of limited lawyers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> located around Delhi. This also puts an <\/span><b>additional financial burden<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on litigants as they can\u2019t hire their local lawyers.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, these constraints were effectively tackled by Virtual proceedings during the pandemic that resulted in more equitable access to justice.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Way Forward<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Chief Justice must establish circuit benches as recommended by multiple law commissions and parliamentary committees.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the time being, SC must continue with the virtual proceedings along with physical proceedings in order to prevent denial of justice. The court can also continue it as a matter of just and equitable policy if not as a matter of right.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=G0I8EUV25.1&amp;imageview=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">THE HINDU<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/electrical-engineering-syllabus\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis: Virtual hearings started during the pandemic provided much relief. However, now focus should be on other measures like the establishment of circuit benches. Background: The pandemic saw the initiation of virtual proceedings in the Supreme Court. It was because the physical hearing was not possible due to COVID-19 restrictions. This new method ensured fair&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/significance-of-circuit-benches\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Significance of Circuit Benches<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[1337],"class_list":["post-100227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-po_2","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":22,"cached_at":1698380747,"cached_date":1698473857},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}