THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NOV 15: On his maiden visit to Kerala as Union Minister of State for Law, Justice and Company Affairs O Rajagopal has put the Nayanar government in a spot over the issue of setting up of a high court bench here.Bringing a bagful of worries for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, Kerala's lone representative in the union cabinet, straightaway raked up the 43-year-old issue.Rajagopal accused the Nayanar regime of adopting a negative approach to the issue. The state government which was to have forwarded an application with the assent of the governor and the chief justice had failed to do so. It had also not cared to reply to a related query by the centre on the Jaswant Singh commission report, he alleged.The Nayanar government, which had been claiming that it had sent a number of representations and requests in the form of resolutions passed in the Assembly, appeared defenceless.Chief Minister E K Nayanar finally passed the buck on to the LDF coordination committee stating that it was upto the front panel to take a final decision on the matter.Interestingly, the demand for setting up a bench here had been an issue in every election since the formation of Kerala state. Rajagopal himself had fought the last elections, albeit unsuccessfully, on this crucial issue. The chronology of the issue dates back to the very formation of Travancore-Cochin state in 1949 when the high court, till then located here, was shifted to Kochi in accordance with the agreement made at that time. However, due to the inconveniences that cropped up, a high court bench started functioning here from 1954.In 1956, when Kerala state was formed, the bench became redundant again, thus triggering a controversy which had been raging till date. The state assembly passed its first resolution on the issue in April 1958 requesting the centre to revive the bench after persistent strikes and the defeat of former chief minister Pattom Thanu Pillai on this very issue.Since then umpteen elections had been fought, a number of resolutions passed, representations made and public outbursts witnessed on this issue, but in vain.Though the UDF government headed by A K Antony forwarded a request in 1996, the centre had returned it on the grounds that formalities like recording the consent of the chief justice were incomplete. Before it could take any steps to rectify the anomalies pointed out by the centre, the Antony government bowed out of office. The Nayanar government claimed that the earlier application was still valid. But the centre was firm that a complete request was needed afresh.The public statements by Rajagopal had succeeded in removing the protective smokescreen with which the LDF government had surrounded itself, but the state government was yet to come clear on whether it wanted a bench here or not. After having been pushed to the wall, Nayanar finally said it was upto the coalition to take a decision.Interestingly, being the biggest litigant of the court, the state government has over 30,000 cases in the high court every year, reportedly causing an expenditure of about Rs 300 crore in the form of conveyance to government officials and other expenses, besides loss of thousands of man-days. Government officials who draw large amounts in the name of conveyance and business lobbies at Kochi were therefore not interested in having a high court bench here.Perhaps it might be the initial and recurring expenditures on the bench that prompted the government to take a stand against the setting up of the bench here, Rajagopal had said.
