Govt positive about bringing in law to protect advocates: Fadnavis

Kolhapur, Aug 17 (PTI) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said his government was positive about introducing a law to ensure the safety of advocates and would take an appropriate decision in that regard.

The CM was speaking at an event in Kolhapur after Chief Justice of India B R Gavai inaugurated the Bombay High Court’s new circuit bench there.

Fadnavis said there has been a demand for a law to ensure the safety of advocates and that his government was positive about the need for such legislation.

He said the government was committed to modernising and upgrading court infrastructure in the state so that justice is delivered to the common man expeditiously.

History has been created in Kolhapur with the culmination of a 50-year-old struggle to get a circuit bench of the HC, he said.

The chief minister recalled that the state cabinet had resolved on May 12, 2015, to set up a circuit bench in Kolhapur.

“When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kolhapur (then) for a programme organised by Pudhari newspaper, a request for the circuit bench was placed before him,” he said.

“In 2018, minister Chandrakant Patil had led an all-party delegation to me for the Kolhapur circuit bench. We pursued the matter and even told the Bombay High Court that we were ready to set up judicial infrastructure for the same.

“But the momentum for the circuit bench picked up under CJI Bhushan Gavai. He has personally monitored the progress of the circuit bench project. Now, the land has also been transferred for the construction of the new circuit bench building,” he said.

The CM said the circuit bench has opened doors for an all-round development of Kolhapur, which has now taken the "centre stage" along with Solapur, Satara, Sangli in the Pune region and Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg in the coastal Konkan belt. PTI MR NR