The Ladakh High Court bench will be inaugurated on Sunday by Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant, bringing the region’s highest judicial access closer to residents who previously had to travel to Srinagar or Jammu for constitutional and other High Court matters.
Ladakh Chief Secretary Ashish Kundra announced the visit at a press conference. Justice Surya Kant will be accompanied by four Supreme Court judges, the Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, and other High Court judges. The Attorney General of India is also expected to attend the inauguration, Kundra said.
The bench has been newly constituted under the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Kundra said it had been established within two months and was not among the demands raised during ongoing negotiations between Ladakhi political leaders and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Describing the development as a major step, Kundra said he did not recall a sitting bench being established in this manner for another High Court in India in the past 40 years, apart from the possible example of benches of the Gauhati High Court in Arunachal Pradesh. He said the initiative would bring justice closer to people in a region where difficult terrain and long distances can make access to public institutions challenging.
“Justice coming closer to the people is a very big thing,” Kundra said. He added that people who wanted to file a writ petition earlier had to travel to Srinagar or Jammu, while the new arrangement would make it possible to pursue such proceedings from Ladakh.
The Chief Secretary said the Centre understood the difficult terrain and challenging circumstances in which people in Ladakh live. He described improved access to justice as important for residents of the Union Territory, where geography can affect the time, cost and logistical complexity of reaching government and judicial institutions.
The inauguration comes as negotiations continue between Ladakhi political leaders and the Ministry of Home Affairs. Ladakhi leaders are seeking a Union Territory with a legislature and constitutional safeguards under Article 371. The High Court bench is a separate institutional measure from those negotiations, and Kundra described it as a unilateral initiative by the Centre.
The visit will bring senior members of the Supreme Court and the High Court to Ladakh for the inauguration. The event is expected to formally mark the operational establishment of the newly constituted bench, although the supplied announcement does not specify its sitting schedule, case allocation process or the locations from which proceedings will be conducted.
