Saurashtra Lawyers Boycott Work as Decades-Old Push for Gujarat High Court Bench in Rajkot Intensifies
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Courtrooms across Rajkot witnessed a total shutdown of routine legal work on Wednesday as hundreds of advocates boycotted judicial proceedings, reviving a decades-old demand to set up a permanent High Court Bench—or Circuit Bench—in the city.
Organised under the banner of the Rajkot Bar Association (RBA), lawyers abandoned court halls and staged demonstrations across the judicial complex, protesting the continued concentration of Gujarat’s premier judicial seat solely in Ahmedabad.
Distance, Costs, and the Struggle for Basic Access to Justice
The core grievance behind the escalating campaign is the severe geographic hardship faced by litigants across the 11 districts comprising Saurashtra and Kutch.
Under the current administrative framework, residents from coastal and far-flung districts such as Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Amreli, and Gir Somnath must travel between 250 and 350 kilometres simply to attend procedural hearings before the Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad. For small farmers, daily-wage workers, and small business owners, the prohibitive travel expenses and lost working days routinely force them to abandon valid legal remedies.
Legal bodies point out that cases originating from the Saurashtra-Kutch region constitute a major share of the total civil and criminal matters pending before the High Court. Centralising all appeals and writ petitions in a single city, they contend, undermines the constitutional promise of accessible justice.
Advocates also point to major Indian states where High Court operations are decentralised across multiple regional seats to serve large populations:
• Maharashtra: Functions through a principal seat in Mumbai alongside benches in Nagpur, Aurangabad, and Panaji.
• Madhya Pradesh: Operates regional benches in Gwalior and Indore alongside Jabalpur.
• Rajasthan: Distributes judicial operations between Jodhpur and Jaipur.
• Karnataka: Serves litigants through regional benches in Dharwad and Kalaburagi in addition to Bengaluru.
With Gujarat’s population exceeding 65 million, legal experts argue that maintaining a single court complex in Ahmedabad no longer meets the administrative demands of a rapidly expanding state.
Reclaiming Rajkot’s Forgotten Judicial Status
Proponents of the move stress that establishing a High Court seat in Rajkot is not an unprecedented concession, but rather the restoration of a historical arrangement.
During the British Raj and the post-independence state of Saurashtra, Rajkot served as the principal seat for the Judicial Commissioner’s Court. Following state mergers, the city hosted a circuit bench of the Bombay High Court until 1960.
However, under the reorganisations surrounding the creation of Gujarat in 1960, judicial proceedings were consolidated entirely in Ahmedabad. Six decades later, local legal bodies argue that the massive growth in population, commerce, and litigation rendered the centralised model obsolete long ago.
How the Regional Agitation is Unfolding
Wednesday’s court boycott marks a noticeable escalation in strategy by the regional legal fraternity, which has built a multi-tiered campaign:
• Specialised Steering Committee: The Rajkot Bar Association formed a 27-member advocate panel tasked with compiling regional litigation data and submitting technical proposals to judicial authorities.
• Saurashtra-Wide Coalition: Bar associations in Jamnagar, Junagadh, Porbandar, Bhavnagar, Amreli, Surendranagar, and Kutch have formed a joint coordination council to mount unified protests.
• Symbolic Demonstrations: Advocates have staged symbolic campus actions, including the blowing of conch shells (shankhnaad) and breaking coconuts within court premises to highlight administrative delays.
• Political Delegations: Representatives continue submitting memorandums to Members of Parliament, state legislators, and the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.
The Legal and Constitutional Roadblock
Despite vocal support from regional political figures across party lines, setting up a new High Court bench requires a strict statutory procedure.
Under Indian constitutional guidelines, a formal proposal must originate from the State Government in direct concurrence with the Chief Justice of the state High Court. Once the High Court administration assesses judicial logistics, infrastructure requirements, and workload distribution, the recommendation is forwarded to the Central Government for presidential notification.
With bar bodies across Saurashtra signalling that periodic boycotts and regional rallies will continue, pressure is mounting on both the Gujarat High Court administration and the state government to initiate a joint committee to review the proposal.
