Punjab opposing state's demand for separate court: Law Ministry

The Centre told the Lok Sabha today that Punjab does not agree with Haryana’s proposal for a separate high court in Chandigarh.

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In response to Congress’ Ambala MP Varun Chaudhary's question regarding any pending proposal for a separate high court for Haryana, the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Law and Justice, Arjun Ram Meghwal, submitted, “The Government of Haryana had requested the establishment of a separate High Court for the State of Haryana at Chandigarh. The views of the High Court of Punjab & Haryana and the state government of Punjab were sought on the matter.”

He further informed, “The Government of Punjab did not agree with the proposal. The Punjab and Haryana High Court, in its full court meeting, resolved not to offer any view. At present, there is no complete proposal on the matter.”

In 2021, the then Karnal MP, Sanjay Bhatia, had also asked about a separate high court in the Lok Sabha, to which the Centre had replied that “the Punjab and Haryana High Court is yet to form its opinion in this regard”.

Currently, the high court has jurisdiction over Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh. “People of Haryana want a separate court. It is connected with our identity. Lakhs of Haryana cases are pending there. I request the Punjab and Haryana High Court to give its opinion in the affirmative,” Chaudhary told The Tribune.

Political parties in Haryana have consistently demanded a separate court. In 2022, the then CM, Manohar Lal Khattar, wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to convene a joint meeting of Haryana and Punjab on the issue. He had reasoned that pending cases from Haryana constituted 50 per cent of the total, but the representation among judges was only 40 per cent.

The state Legislative Assembly had passed resolutions for a separate court in 2002, 2005, and 2017. The state argues that even small states in the Northeast, such as Sikkim, Tripura, Manipur, and Meghalaya, have separate courts. According to the Vidhan Sabha record, during the arguments on the resolution in the Assembly in 2017, a former CM, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, had stated that his government had also attempted to establish a separate court. He had added, “However, the matter got stuck on the issue of jurisdiction—whether the jurisdiction of the Punjab high court would remain in Chandigarh or that of the Haryana high court. Since Chandigarh is the capital of both states, it cannot be allocated to just one state. We had also proposed that a judge from the Punjab high court and another from the Haryana court could be given jurisdiction over Chandigarh.”

Khattar had replied, “…if two separate courts are established in one city (Chandigarh), jurisdiction will remain a major issue. This is not just about the jurisdiction over Chandigarh, but also the fact that the offices of both Haryana and Punjab are located in Chandigarh, and jurisdiction is determined geographically. When the matter of establishing a separate court for Haryana was presented before the PM, he too had raised the same question.”

Meanwhile, in response to Sirsa MP Kumari Selja's question, the ministry said the number of cases related to Haryana pending in the high court was 1.95 lakh, with 10,532 cases being over 20 years old.