CHENNAI: DMK Rajya Sabha MP P Wilson on Thursday urged the Centre to take steps to establish a permanent regional bench of the Supreme Court as most of the citizens of the country are not in the position to reach the apex court due to distance and cost. Wilson said he has also written a letter to Union Minister for Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad in this regard.
In his letter, he stated, “Access to justice is a fundamental right enshrined under our Constitution. The framers of our Constitution considered this right to be so sacrosanct that they enacted Article 32 - a direct access to the highest court of the land to enforce fundamental rights. More so, the fundamental duty of the State is to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen because of economic or other disabilities.”
He added, “Article 32 is now available only to (i) citizens who are geographically close to the Supreme Court and (ii) the financially privileged class to whom cost of litigation and travel do not matter. Article 32 cannot be deprived to any citizen due to economic factors and will fall foul of the constitutional mandate under Art 39 of recourse to justice at the level of the Supreme Court.
Because the Supreme Court is far away from many States, people living in these States are virtually deprived of their right to approach the court not only due to distance but also cost factor. Therefore, Article 32 is practically unavailable to these citizens.”
He further added, “I urge your good self to bring in a Government Bill to amend Article 130 and establish Permanent Regional Benches of Supreme Court at New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, so that Article 32 may be easily accessible and available to all and oblige.”