Retired Chief Justice Raftan hailed the new High Court bench in Ladakh as a major achievement, fulfilling a long-standing demand. He said it would make justice accessible for locals, who no longer need to travel to Srinagar or Jammu for cases.
Retired Chief Justice Raftan welcomed the establishment of a High Court bench in Ladakh, calling it a significant achievement that would make justice more accessible to people in the region, who earlier had to travel to Srinagar or Jammu to pursue legal cases. “First of all, I’d like to send my very best wishes to all the people of Ladakh, the entire region. The people of Ladakh have had this demand for many years,” he said, talking to ANI on Sunday.
Explaining the need for the bench, he said people from Ladakh had to travel to Srinagar or Jammu to appeal before the High Court or file constitutional writ petitions, making legal proceedings expensive and difficult to pursue. “It’s really necessary because anyone from Ladakh who had to appeal to the High Court or file a constitutional writ petition had to travel to Srinagar or Jammu, which was financially very hard to pursue litigation. Legal cases were very expensive, and it was tough to live there and then follow through with a case,” he said.
Efforts Behind the Bench
Raftan said he made efforts with Justice Koteshwar, then LG, Brigadier BD Mishra, to take up the demand with the Chief Justice of India, the Government of India and the leadership of the then Jammu and Kashmir administration. “I became a High Court judge in 2013. Since then, I’ve done my best to handle all the delayed letters on my end, whether it was for the Chief Justice of India, the Government of India, or the Chief Minister and Governor of Ladakh, which was then part of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
“Justice Koteshwar, then LG, Brigadier B. D. Mishra and I pushed a lot; we had almost gotten the file through to the Government of India and were just waiting for the notification. But for some reason, the notification didn’t come out. After that, the Parliament elections came up, so better late than never,” he added.
Geography Prioritised Over Litigation Volume
Highlighting the importance of the decision, Raftan said establishing a High Court bench in a sparsely populated region was challenging because of the staff and financial requirements involved. He said Ladakh’s geographical conditions and distance from other judicial centres needed to be given priority over the volume of litigation. " It is a very important and valuable decision as it's really hard to get a High Court constitution bench in a less populated area. Because of the High Court, you hear a lot about benches here; a full bench has a lot of staff, which gets really expensive, and they also look at how much litigation there is. But now, keeping Ladakh's geography and distance in mind, from day one I was fully hoping that we need to have a bench here based not based on the number of cases, or the volume of litigation, but on the geography of Ladakh," he said.
Justice at Home for Ladakh
Thanking the Centre for issuing the notification, Raftan described the bench as an important step towards making justice accessible to people in the region. “This is because of the Government of India’s one-step justice policy, which helps achieve its goal. So today, we should all be really thankful to the Government of India, because they issued this notification when I was the Acting Chief Justice,” he said.
Raftan said the new bench would significantly ease the difficulties faced by litigants who previously had to travel outside Ladakh to pursue their cases. “Getting this is very difficult, and thanks to everyone’s hard work, we finally have a High Court bench today. It will be a huge help for all the litigants and the people of Ladakh. Justice will be served right at home. We won’t have to go to Srinagar or Jammu anymore. So this is a massive achievement,” he added. (ANI)
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