Overview

• Chief Justice Alok Aradhe issued a gazette notification on August 1 under the States Reorganisation Act with the governor’s approval to establish the Kolhapur bench.
• The Kolhapur bench will serve Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts.
• This expansion marks the Bombay High Court’s fourth bench, joining existing seats in Mumbai, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Goa.
• Maharashtra’s chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, praised the move for easing a backlog of more than 225,000 cases and cutting travel burdens for thousands of litigants.
• Decades of local advocacy, including protests and fasts, gained momentum after CJI B.R. Gavai deemed the Kolhapur bench the ‘need of the hour’.