The 229^th report of the Law Commission which proposed instituting four regional benches of the Supreme Court to ease the burden of the present Supreme Court has run into an insurmountable roadblock.

The report proposed dividing the Supreme Court into a Constitutional Bench at Delhi and 4 cassation branches of the Supreme Court in the North, East, West and South regions at Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad or Chennai respectively.

The Ministry of Law had sought the opinion of Attorney General Ghoolam Vahanvaty who classified the recommendation as unworkable. Now, the Chief Justice, K.G. Balakrishnan has expressed his reservations.

Speaking to at the R.K. Jain Memorial Foundation Lecture at Delhi, he made it clear that he was not in favor of the ‘disintegration’ of the Apex Court.  “It is a final court and we should maintain the integrity of the Supreme Court,” he said.

Senior Counsel K.K. Venugopal however felt that an additional appellate court between the High Courts and the Supreme Court would be beneficial. Agreeing with the suggestion, the CJI felt that there was nothing wrong with ‘restructuring’ the Supreme Court. “Personally, I feel that it cannot be in any other part of India. I cannot let the Supreme Court disintegrate,” he added.

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