2 days ago
HC appoints four judges for Kolhapur circuit bench
Kolhapur: The Bombay high court on Thursday issued a "sitting list" of judges who will serve at the Kolhapur circuit bench, which will start operations from Aug 18. A division bench comprising Justices M S Karnik and Sharmila U Deshmukh, along with single bench judges Justice Shivkumar Dige and Justice S G Chapalgaonkar, will commence hearings.
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Justices M S Karnik and Sharmila U Deshmukh will sit in courtroom 1 as the division bench and handle all public interest litigation, civil writ petitions, first appeals, family court appeals, contempt appeals, and various other applications, including confirmation of death sentence cases with connected appeals. Justice Shivkumar Dige will preside over courtroom 2 as single bench 1, while Justice S G Chapalgaonkar will oversee courtroom 3 as single bench 2.
An order signed by H M Bhosale, registrar (judicial 1), mandates that cases where the Apex Court has ordered expeditious or time-bound hearings will receive priority. "The matters of senior citizens and the marginalised sections would also be given priority," the order states. Additionally, criminal appeals pending for more than five years, where the accused are detained, will be prioritised.
Under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, Justice Shivkumar Dige is designated to hear and decide cases. Matters on the Companies Act, 1956, Companies Act, 2013, and the Banking Regulation Act 1949 will fall under the jurisdiction of Justice S G Chapalgaonkar. For partially heard matters, where all parties submit a joint written request for retention before the high court, the cases will be reviewed by the Chief Justice.
If approved, the Chief Justice will assign these matters to the HC judges.
