Nagpur: District and Sessions Court will be expanded on a land which Maharashtra govt would provide for setting up a modern building equipped with advanced facilities, said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday. “The expansion is necessary considering the increase in litigation and the number of people visiting the court,” he said while responding to a long-standing demand from the legal fraternity.The announcement was made during the installation ceremony of the newly elected District Bar Association (DBA) executive committee at Vasantrao Deshpande Hall. The demand was raised by newly elected DBA president Prakash Jaiswal.CM acknowledged that the existing premises were facing space constraints despite the installation of new lifts recently. On the list of demands raised by the new DBA executive, Fadnavis said in a lighter vein: “Last time they asked for just one building; now they’ve asked for a new court.”Former Chief Justice of India, Bhushan Gavai, said criticism of Maharashtra’s judicial infrastructure had increasingly been answered through actual projects over the last 12 years. Gavai cited the establishment of HC’s circuit bench at Kolhapur and new district court buildings across the state as examples. He also said Fadnavis had ensured that lack of funds did not become an obstacle to the Kolhapur project.Justice Gavai also recalled that, during his tenure as CJI, there had been discussions about increasing the upper age limit for judges. He said he had opposed the proposal because he did not want service conditions to be changed.Nagpur bench administrative judge Justice Anil Kilor, principal district and sessions judge MS Azmi, newly elected DBA secretary Anil Gulhane, outgoing president Roshan Bagde and outgoing secretary Manish Randive were among those present.Kilor urged lawyers to devote some of their professional time to handling at least one case every month for a poor litigant. He said, “Being a lawyer is not merely a profession for earning money.”Fadnavis also recounted his experiences of lawyers’ elections. Calling the DBA election a “Mahabharata”, the CM joked that he had stopped voting in recent years because candidates across panels were “familiar” to him.Lawyers’ elections are difficult, I agree,” Fadnavis said. “But once a person contests an election, he does not dare contest it again. Think about us — we do this every five years.”Fadnavis also said lawyers, judges and the executive shared a responsibility towards society, particularly disadvantaged sections, and called for continued efforts to strengthen the justice-delivery system and improve access to justice.
