New J&K High Court bench to come up in Ladakh, announces HM Amit Shah

New Delhi/Leh: The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the establishment of a bench of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in the Union Territory of Ladakh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said.

Amit Shah said the decision, taken by the Union Cabinet under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, would improve access to justice for people living in remote and far-flung areas of Ladakh.

“The Union Cabinet, under the leadership of the PM Shri @narendramodi Ji, has decided to set up a bench of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir in Ladakh. This will significantly enhance access to justice for citizens living in remote areas of Ladakh by reducing the time required to avail themselves of the legal services they are entitled to”, he said in a post on X.

“The Govt is fully committed to the all-round development of Ladakh and to ensuring constitutional safeguards”.

Till now, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh has been functioning with benches at Jammu and Srinagar, and all the cases filed in it pertaining to the Ladakh region would be heard by either bench.

With the new decision, the cases pertaining to the Ladakh region will now be heard at the bench set to come up at Leh, the capital of the Ladakh region.

Till the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of J&K into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh, the court in the state of J&K, including the Ladakh region, was called the J&K High Court. However, after the downgrading of J&K, it was renamed the High Court of J&K and Ladakh.

After the decision of the Union Cabinet, it will continue to be called the High Court of J&K and Ladakh but now with an additional bench at Leh, in addition to Srinagar and Jammu.

IANS