MEERUT: A day after the Allahabad High Court ordered district judges to provide e-filing facility to litigants and advocates, lawyers in western UP termed it an "attempt to derail the six decade-old demand for an HC bench" in the region. On Friday, high court registrar general Rajeev Bharti issued a notification instructing all district judges in the state to provide e-filing through service centres from November 1.Veteran lawyer and former bar association president Gajender Dhama said the order was impractical and served no purpose, apart from increasing chaos.He claimed the order was issued with the "sole aim of derailing the decades-old agitation for the demand of a high court bench in West UP... There is a pendency of 12 lakh cases in the high court."He added: "Its already a big challenge to get hearing dates at Allahabad and Lucknow benches. Local lawyers are resourceful in getting the dates but who will follow it when the online system comes into force? Online hearing has not been successful as it also leaves litigants dissatisfied.A pioneer of the HC bench agitation movement, Narender Pal Singh, said, I think the demand should shift towards division of the state. I feel that Gorakhpur, Agra, Lucknow and Garh Mukteshwar should be capitals of separate states carved out of UP. This will automatically lead to the establishment of four high courts.""While e-filing of cases will give some respite to litigants, like bail can be granted online, the long-term solution is the states division," he reiterated.KK Pahwa, senior advocate and spearheader of the movement in Meerut, said, "In 1955, Dr Sampurnanand, then chief minister of UP, for the first time recommended the formation of a bench in west UP, preferably Meerut."In 1981, the state government recommended to the Centre the establishment of a bench here. Meanwhile, agitations by lawyers compelled the Union government to set up the Jaswant Singh commission in 1981 to look into the matter. After four years of deliberations, the panel recommended the creation of a bench in west UP. The Centre failed to act on it but on the basis of this recommendation, Maharashtra got a bench in Aurangabad.The distance between west UP and Allahabad HC poses problems for litigants, the primary reason for lawyers demanding a bench here. Interestingly, Allahabad HC is more than 600km from Meerut. Most cities of UP West are less than 150km from Meerut which makes it an ideal place .

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