New Delhi: The Supreme Court today sought response from the Centre and the Ministry of Law on the issue of establishment of a National Court of Appeal with regional benches in major cities to finally decide cases arising from high courts.
The PIL petitioner submitted that distance of the apex court in national capital from other parts of the country coupled with high travel expense and cost of litigation were coming in way of citizens from far flung areas to approach the top court of the land which is otherwise also burdened with large scale pendency of cases.
“In this petition, issue of positive nature has been raised. We are issuing notices to respondents (Centre, Legislative Department and Justice Department) seeking for early consideration on representation (by petitioner) made on November 21, 2013,” a bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi said while seeking their reply within four weeks.
The court was hearing a PIL filed by Puducherry-based advocate V Vasantha Kumar seeking direction for the Centre and departments concerned to consider his November 21, 2013 representation for consideration and implementation of the suggestions made by the apex court in a 1986 judgement to establish a National Court of Appeal with regional benches in major cities.
