BRS netas bat for regional benches of Supreme Court

Hyderabad: The BRS party demanded on Wednesday that the Centre have four Supreme Court benches and increase the number of judges.

Addressing a press conference here, along with legal cell head S Bharat, former MP B Vinod Kumar referred to the Supreme Court Chief Justice Chandrachud’s comments on the pains of the judges, which will be known if they sit in those seats. ‘There has always been a demand that the Supreme Court bench in four regions of the country. The Law Commission and Parliament Standing Committee have also suggested that SC benches should be set up in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, or Hyderabad’, he said.

Though the Centre was positive on this, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has the power to constitute benches under Article 130 of the Constitution. Some people are raising an unnecessary argument that setting up SB at four places will disturb the integrity of the country. “As an MP in 2015, I proposed the Constitution Amendment Bill in Parliament, and there is a need for the formation of SC benches,” said Kumar.

He said as many as 5.1 crore cases were pending in the country; over 20 lakh cases were pending for 30 years. The Supreme Court has 34 judges. What is wrong if there are 64? When Telangana was formed, there were 24 judges. The Centre sanctioned 42 judges in 2018 at the instance of KCR, which included the initiative of the then CJ NV Ramana. There are 37 judges in the AP High Court. Now Parliament sessions are running. The Supreme Court benches should be set up in four places, and the number of SC judges should be increased to 64.

He pointed out that the full court advocates were opposing the formation of SC benches for various reasons. The full court should change its attitude and take the initiative to establish SC benches and increase the number of judges.

Bharat said India was the fourth-largest economy in the world and the largest democracy. ‘Judiciary systems rank 93rd out of 142 countries in terms of case resolution. If cases are pending, it will affect the country's GDP. Just 0.1 per cent of the Central budget has been allocated for the judicial system. The BRS government created 33 districts and set up computerised courts; this was not available in many States, he said.