Indian Law Minister agreed with demand of High Court Bench in Dharamshala: Shanta Kumar

Dharamshsala, August 30, 2018: The ex-CM of Himachal Pradesh and the present BJP MP from Kangra, Shanta Kumar has welcomed Jai Ram Thakur, CM Himachal for supporting the idea of setting up of High Court Bench at Dharamshala. Shanta said, this is a long pending demand of the area. Its genuine demand of the public of the districts of Kangra and Chamba that are far-flung from state capital Shimla and it is difficult for them to commute frequently. He added that keeping the physical distance of Shimla in mind it is necessary to set up a circuit bench of High Court at Dharamshala. Shanta said, “I had a detailed talk regarding this demand with the present Law Minister of India and he too agreed to it. Now, HP CM expressed his desire to set up the bench at Dharamshala, it seems that the demand could be fulfilled.” Shanta requested the HP High Court to fulfil the demand keeping the difficulty of the public of this far flung area and further said that he is also sure that HP government will raise demand of the necessity of setting up of the bench in front of High Court with full perfection. Earlier on Wednesday during the HP Assembly Session BJP MLA from Nurpur (District Kangra) Rakesh Pathania raised this issue under Rule 63, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that previous state governments had also sent a proposal to the Centre, suggesting the setting up of a circuit bench at Dharamshala. The Centre had referred the proposal to the High Court for seeking comments. The High Court in its response, sent to the Centre in September 2011, did not favour the idea. “Now, since the proposal was not accepted by the High Court, it will be more appropriate for the government to first hold consultations with the High Court and if it works, only then we can recommend or sent a fresh proposal to the centre government”, said Thakur. Earlier, Pathania expressed the urgent need to set up a circuit bench at Dharamshala to help the public get speedy justice. He recalled that earlier governments led by Shanta Kumar, Virbhadra Singh and Prem Kumar Dhumal had favoured the setting up of a circuit bench of the High Court at Dharamshala . Pathania was joined by independent MLA Hoshiar Singh, who also supported the demand, recalling that Shanta Kumar, as Chief Minister in 1977, had taken an initiative for setting up a circuit bench of the High Court at Dharamshala. He also claimed that manifestos of the BJP and Congress had mentioned it. Lawyers of Dharamsala District Court too several times sat on hunger strikes, boycotted work, took out rallies in past years and sent memorandums to the state Governor demanding setting up of a bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court at Dharamshala.