Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Sunday inaugurated the Ladakh Bench of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh at Melangthong in Leh, underscoring that access to justice must be measured by the proximity of judicial institutions to litigants, rather than their mere formal availability.
Addressing the gathering at an altitude of approximately 3,500 metres above sea level, the CJI said the significance of the new Bench lay in bringing the High Court closer to the people of Ladakh, who have historically faced considerable geographical and financial impediments in pursuing judicial remedies.
“We are some 3,500 metres above the sea, and I am told no High Court in our country has ever sat higher. Of course, what matters today is not how high this Court sits. What is important is how close it now stands to the people it serves,” he said.
Recalling that the High Court had remained beyond the Himalayas for nearly a century, CJI Surya Kant highlighted the difficulties faced by litigants, particularly those seeking pensionary benefits or relief in family disputes. He observed that the right to approach the High Court risked remaining merely theoretical when geographical remoteness made litigation prohibitively difficult.
Although Ladakh became a Union Territory in 2019 and was brought within the institutional framework of the High Court, the CJI said formal recognition could not substitute for a court accessible to litigants in the region.
“A name on a Court’s letterhead is not the same as a Court at one’s doorstep,” he said.
Lauding the Union Government, the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh and the High Court for facilitating the establishment of the Bench, he said, “The High Court has today crossed the passes to reach Ladakh, instead of asking the people of Ladakh to cross the passes to reach it.”
The CJI also drew parallels between the region’s traditional dispute-resolution mechanisms and the principles governing judicial decision-making. Referring to the goba, a village-level authority that resolves disputes through thims, and the chuspon, responsible for equitable water distribution, he said the latter offered an apt description of the fairness expected of a judge.
Emphasising the need to complement physical judicial infrastructure with technology and legal aid, CJI Surya Kant said geographical barriers must not translate into barriers to justice.
“In a land of such vast distances, technology can do what no road ever could,” he said, adding, “Technology, thus, must be a ramp into the Courtroom, never a new wall around it.”
He stressed that legal aid was a constitutional commitment, not an act of charity, and that no citizen should be denied justice because of poverty or any other disability.
“Access to justice, after all, begins not in the Court’s compound, but at the litigant’s door,” he said.
In a significant announcement, the CJI said the Supreme Court would facilitate the hearing of matters originating from Ladakh through video-conferencing once adequate facilities were available to advocates practising before the Ladakh Bench.
“Once video-conferencing facilities are adequately available to the lawyers of the Ladakh Bench, the Supreme Court shall list all matters coming from Ladakh on a single day, and hear them on day to day basis also through video-conferencing,” he said.
The proposed arrangement would enable advocates from Leh and Kargil to argue matters before the Supreme Court without having to travel to New Delhi, reducing the logistical and financial burden associated with litigation before the apex court.
Concluding his address, CJI Surya Kant said the success of the new Bench would depend on whether it became an enduring and accessible institution for the people of Ladakh.
“When that day comes, we will know that this Bench has not merely arrived in Ladakh, but taken root here,” he said.
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