Meerut: Work in 22 courts across west UP has been crippled with more than one lakh lawyers seeking a high court bench in this part of Uttar Pradesh going on a week-long strike on Monday.The lawyers' Central Action Committee (CAC) said it has decided to "infuse aggression" into their more than 50-year-old demand for a high court bench in west UP "whose districts are too far away from the Allahabad high court or its Lucknow bench". Office-bearers of CAC have also declared that all toll plazas on west UP highways will be compelled not to charge any toll fee on February 23.Pramod Sharma, convenor of CAC, said, “The strike will continue until February 26 and no work will be allowed to be conducted in treasury, courts or registry office. The first day of the strike has been immensely successful. Besides, every day, a district has been chosen where mass dharnas will take place. Massive public awareness rallies will be taken out in every west UP city. On the last day, lawyers will hold a press conference at the Press Club of India in Delhi.”Suman Raghav, Bulandshahr Bar Association president, said, “It was a complete strike and no business was conducted. Even bail hearings were boycotted. A decision to strike work was taken last week after a bench was announced for Kolhapur in Maharashtra. If they can get it, why can’t we? If leaders talk about a bench for west UP in elections, this is the time to build it.”Senior lawyer and former president of CAC Gajendra Dhama said, “Our patience is wearing thin. We are planning to reach the venue of the RSS rally slated to happen in Meerut on February 25 and stage a protest.”Veteran lawyer KK Pahwa, who is one of the pioneers of the HC bench movement, told TOI, “Close to 57% of all litigations pending in the high court are from west UP. In other words, this area is the proverbial golden goose and a great source of income for Allahabad HC lawyers. Incidentally, eastern UP also has a very powerful and politically active lobby that pulled strings not to let a bench come up in any of the cities of western UP as it could have resulted in substantial loss of income for them.”Pahwa added: “For an HC bench, Meerut is most suitably located on the western UP map. For instance, Saharanpur is 780 km from Allahabad where HC is located but it is only 130 km from Meerut. Similarly, Moradabad is 630 km from Allahabad whereas the brass city is only 120 km from Meerut. The point I want to bring home is that most of the west UP cities are much closer to Meerut than Allahabad. A litigant has to bear enormous cost to travel all the way to Allahabad for hearings.”

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