By Sanjeev Sirohi
There can definitely be just no quibbling about the most irrefutable fact that Supreme Court which is the highest court in India must definitely now must feel most terribly ashamed and hang its head in shame that lawless Bihar where even police officers are not safe with two police officers being killed most recently in different incidents has not even a single High Court Bench even though its population is more than 16 crores! On the contrary, peaceful States like Karnataka with just 6 crores population have multiple High Court Benches with two High Court Benches being created in just one go in 2008 for just four and 8 districts respectively at Dharwad and Gulbarga respectively! It also has a High Court Bench at Hubli as mentioned in GK books.
Not for one term, not for two terms, not for three terms, not for four terms, not for five terms, not for six terms but for historic seventh consecutive term, we see that Mr Manan Kumar Mishra who is a Rajya Sabha member from Bihar and belongs to the ruling BJP and is a gold medalist of his batch while doing LLB from Patna University has been re-elected as Chairman of most prestigious Bar Council of India which is the Apex statutory body that regulates the legal profession and legal education in India. It was in April 2012 that he was elected for the first time as Chairman of Bar Council of India. How can it happen but it has happened because of his stellar leadership qualities and his soaring popularity among lawyers which even his critics grudgingly acknowledge!
I fondly and most fervently hope that he will at least now most vociferously demand multiple High Court Benches for most deserving States like his home state Bihar which has not even a single High Court Bench even though he himself practiced most actively only in Patna High Court for about 26 years from 1982 till 2008 and in 2009 shifted to Supreme Court as has been pointed out in the most prestigious website “Wikipedia” and Union Minister Giriraj Singh some time back had slammed Bihar as “lawless”! When Karnataka with just 6 crore population can have multiple High Court Benches then why Bihar with 16 crore population does not have even a single High Court Bench from where Mr Manan Kumar Mishra comes? Why does he never feel ashamed about this most unpalatable truth?
I am sure that in his heart, he too must be most deeply and most terribly ashamed that his home State that is Bihar has not even a single High Court Bench not even a single High Court Circuit Bench even though he has been elected to the most prestigious post of Chairman of Bar Council of India for the record 7th consecutive term which is no mean or ordinary achievement, is simply unbelievable and will always be written in golden letters in the pages of history! We saw how recently during ‘Question Hour’, the JD(U)’s Banka MP – Girdhari Yadav raised the most critical issue of setting up of High Court Benches in Bihar which it is sorely lacking. It was pointed out so very commendably by Girdhari Yadav in Parliament that, “Setting up of High Court Benches is under the Central list. In Bihar, which has a population of 13 crore, there is just one High Court and no Bench. In States with much lower populations, there is a High Court and two Benches. Does the Centre have any intention to set up a Bench in Bhagalpur or elsewhere in Bihar?” Centre must swing into action instead of dishing out lame excuses one after the other!
We need to note that an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police (ASI) Rajiv Kumar Mall was beaten to death in Bihar’s Araria district on March 12, 2025 who was brutally assaulted by a mob when he was going to arrest Anmol Yadav who was evading arrest in connection with a case that was lodged against him. The incident took place at Laxmipur village under Phulkaha police station limits where the ASI was posted and he received grievous injuries in the deadly and ghastly assault and was subsequently admitted to the Sadar hospital at Forbesganj. This only shows that criminals have no fear of law left in their mind and are convinced that they would be able to escape with impunity even after committing such horrific acts of most gruesome crimes against men in uniform themselves!
As if this was not enough, we witnessed very soon that another police officer was killed most mercilessly in the past 48 hours by an irate mob which left senior officers at the State police headquarters red-faced! Santosh Kumar who was an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police (ASI) was attacked with a sharp-edged weapon on his head when he attempted to mediate a dispute between two groups near ITC Nandlalpur village under Mufassil police station limits in Munger district at around 8 pm on March 14, 2025! It is worth noting that the slain ASI was a resident of Bhabua in Kaimur district and had been transferred to Munger about a year ago. His family has been informed and his body will be handed over to them after the post-mortem examination. The back-to-back killing of two police officers have left many wondering why lawless Bihar has not even a single High Court Bench nor even a single High Court Circuit Bench?
What I find most particularly distressing is that we see no mention in priority list of Mr Manan Kumar Mishra of the most strict implementation of the 230th Report of the Law Commission of India which way back in 2009 had most strongly recommended creation of more High Court Benches prepared under a panel of legal jurists headed by former Supreme Court Judge and an eminent jurist himself – Late Dr AR Lakshmanan but which are still gathering dust even after nearly 16 years! Let me say that I really still nurture lot of hopes from Mr Manan Kumar Mishra who has been elected for the 7th consecutive term as Chairman of Bar Council of India and so also from Mr Sanjay Sharma who has made his debut as President of Meerut Bar Association that they both will definitely leave no stone unturned to ensure that the unjustified monopoly of only few elite States like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Assam, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh in having multiple High Court Benches while depriving big States like Bihar and Orissa from having even a single High Court Bench and so also big States like UP which tops the State list in having maximum number of pending cases and maximum population and so also Rajasthan which is biggest State areawise from having more than one High Court Bench most atrociously, arbitrarily, authoritatively and arrogantly with Supreme Court, Bar Council of India and Press considered rightly as the fourth pillar of democracy not being able to do anything worthwhile to ensure that this most Himalayan blunder is corrected at the earliest and big States like UP, Bihar and Rajasthan are given their due honour by ensuring that multiple High Court Benches are created in all these States also at the earliest!
How long will the unjustified monopoly of few regions and few States in distribution of High Court and High Court Benches continue unrestricted without any pragmatic reason to justify it? It is a no-brainer that the denial of even a single High Court Bench to West UP is plainly unconstitutional! Why no tremors ever felt even in the Supreme Court over Bihar having not even a single High Court Bench which takes suo motu cognizance in cheating in Mayor elections as we saw in Chandigarh Mayor elections so quickly? This is definitely all the more distressing because it directly concerns the judiciary yet nothing done absolutely just nothing most astoundingly even by the top court!
My most simple and straightforward question is: Why the hell on earth is Centre so adamant in ensuring that only few elite States have the birthright and that too “unfettered” without any logical rhyme or reason and this is happening so brashly in India which is the largest democratic country in the world? Why can’t the Centre abolish the unjustified monopoly of few elite States in having multiple High Court Benches while depriving most needy States like Bihar and Orissa from having even one Bench and big States like UP and Rajasthan from having multiple High Court Benches? Why does no one talks about “VIP culture” in distribution of High Court Benches to only a few elite States and few regions alone as we see both High Court and Bench in Eastern UP?
You don’t need a telescope to see which State should have maximum High Court Benches as it is the most populated State! How long will the Supreme Court be in hibernation mode? It has to be acknowledged with grace that denial of even a single High Court Bench to lawless Bihar is not only dangerous and deleterious but also most disastrous and most discriminatory!
It must be asked: How long will the creation of even a single High Court Bench in Bihar be just on the anvil? When will it finally materialize? Is this the way to make India a developed country by 2047 as PM Mr Narendra Modi wants to deprive most deserving big States like UP, Bihar and Rajasthan from having multiple High Court Benches with lawless Bihar not having even a single High Court Bench? Yet why even our media which is considered the fourth pillar of democracy very rarely bothers to ever highlight it most forcefully especially in news channels and top newspapers and top magazines? I just can’t second guess!
(The writer is an advocate based in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh)
