CJI B.R. Gavai Launches Bombay High Court Circuit Bench in Kolhapur

Quick Summary

• Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai inaugurated the Bombay High Court’s new circuit Bench in Kolhapur district on August 17, 2025.
• The inauguration was attended by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis adn Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
• The Kolhapur Bench was introduced to reduce the burden on litigants and lawyers who previously had to travel to Mumbai for case hearings.
• Currently, apart from its principal Bench in mumbai, the Bombay High Court has three other Benches: Nagpur (Vidarbha), Aurangabad (Marathwada), and Goa.
• On August 1, Bombay HC Chief Justice Alok Aradhe issued a notification establishing kolhapur as a circuit Bench.
• Jurisdiction of the new Kolhapur circuit extends over six districts: satara, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur, ratnagiri and Sindhudurg.
• Operations begin on August 18 with a division Bench comprising Justices M.S. Karnik & Sharmila Deshmukh and two single Benches presided over by Justices S.G. Dige & S.G. Chapalgaonkar.

– Division Bench will handle PILs, writ petitions, appeals (civil/family court), contempt cases etc., from the six districts under its jurisdiction.- Single Benches will handle specific criminal or civil matters; Justice Dige focuses on criminal cases like bail applications while Justice Chapalgaonkar focuses on civil matters.

Indian Opinion Analysis
The establishment of the Kolhapur circuit Bench is an critically important step toward decentralizing judicial processes within Maharashtra’s vast geographic area.By addressing long-standing demands from various stakeholders for localized access to justice in Western Maharashtra (and neighboring areas), this advancement is likely to improve accessibility for litigants while easing operational pressure on existing benches in more populous regions such as mumbai or Aurangabad.

Furthermore, with defined jurisdiction spanning six districts critical both agriculturally and industrially within Maharashtra’s economic landscape-such as Sangli (renowned for sugar production) or Ratnagiri-it ensures faster redressal across diverse cases like family disputes or public interest litigation affecting rural livelihoods commonly impacted slower hearing schedules earlier prevalent centralised urban hubs clogged workloads.Read more at The Hindu