Overview

• Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai formally inaugurated the circuit bench on August 17 with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in attendance.
• The bench will operate from August 18 with a division bench of Justices M.S. Karnik and Sharmila Deshmukh and two single benches led by Justices S.G. Dige and S.G. Chapalgaonkar.
• It holds jurisdiction over civil writs, public interest litigations, appeals and criminal matters from Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts.
• The move stems from an August 1 notification by Bombay High Court Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and aligns with Gavai’s wider reform agenda for decentralization and transparency.
• Officials expect the new bench to ease frequent travel to Mumbai for litigants and help reduce a backlog of over 225,000 pending cases in western Maharashtra.