Srinagar: The newly set up Ladakh Bench of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh began regular hearings in Leh on Wednesday, three days after its formal inauguration by Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant.
The first sitting was held by a Division Bench of Chief Justice Dr Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati and Justice Sanjay Parihar.
The Bench took up five matters listed for the day.
Justice Parihar was scheduled to continue hearing cases as a single-judge bench on Thursday and Friday.
The High Court had earlier identified around 75 cases from the Ladakh region for listing before the new Bench during its initial sittings.
Officials said the move is meant to cut down the long and often difficult journeys that litigants and lawyers from Leh, Kargil and other remote parts of the Union Territory previously had to make to the principal seats in Srinagar or Jammu.
Leh sits at roughly 3,500 metres (about 11,500 feet) above sea level, making this the highest High Court bench in the country.
The court complex has been equipped as a fully IT-enabled and paperless facility, with provisions for e-filing, digital records and video-conferencing.
At the inauguration on October 18, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant described the Bench as a step towards ensuring that people in remote areas do not have to struggle with distance and terrain to access higher judicial remedies.
He also announced that once video-conferencing facilities are ready, the Supreme Court would list matters originating from Ladakh on a single day so that local lawyers can appear virtually without travelling to Delhi.
Chief Justice Bhati had earlier said the permanent Bench fulfils a long-standing demand to make justice more accessible for residents of Ladakh, which became a separate Union Territory in 2019 after the reorganisation of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Centre had approved the Bench in August, and Leh was formally notified as the venue for sittings on October 5.
The new Bench will function as part of the High Court of J&K and Ladakh, which continues to operate from its main seats in Srinagar and Jammu.
Local advocates are expected to benefit from being able to pursue High Court work closer to home.
Ladakh became a separate UT in August 2019 following the reorganisation of the erstwhile state of J&K.
Since then, demands had grown for a local High Court bench to make judicial services more accessible to residents.
The inauguration of the Ladakh Bench and now its commencing regular hearings are being viewed as a major institutional milestone, bringing the higher judiciary closer to the people and reinforcing the promise of timely and effective access to justice in the landlocked region.
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