Chandigarh, July 8
In what could be a major setback to the efforts of the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress Government in Haryana to have a separate High Court for Haryana in Chandigarh itself, the Union Law Minister, Mr Hans Raj Bhardwaj, today ruled out any such plan.

“I have already written to the Chief Minister, Haryana, asking him to provide a location anywhere in Haryana so that we can move things forward. But, there is no question of us agreeing to locate the new High Court in Chandigarh," Mr Bhardwaj said here.

He was in the city to preside over the meeting of his ministry's Hindi advisory committee.

Asked to comment on the suggestion by Haryana that, to begin with, the present High Court complex here could be bifurcated into two separate High Courts, one for Punjab and another for Haryana, the Minister replied that the idea was neither practical nor feasible.

"The Constitution is very clear that each state must have its own High Court. But, when Haryana was craved out of Punjab, it was decided to continue with a single High Court.

Now, if the present government wants to have a separate High Court for the state, we have absolutely no objection. They only have to provide us the location. It can be anywhere in Haryana," Mr Bhardwaj said.

It may be recalled that last year, the Haryana Assembly had unanimously passed a resolution demanding a separate High Court. The demand for a separate High Court has been hanging fire since the past many years, with almost every successive government in Haryana raising the demand at least once during its tenure.

When Mr Om Prakash Chautala was the Chief Minister, the state legislature had passed a resolution for a separate High Court. However, the Union government did not accede to the demand.

On May 2, a high-level team led by an Additional Secretary-rank officer of the Union Ministry of Law and Justice had held parleys with the Haryana Advocate General, Mr Hawa Singh Hooda, the Chief Secretary, Mr Prem Prashant, and some other senior government functionaries here regarding the demand.

The team also toured the Civil Secretariat and the Vidhan Sabha complex, both of which are shared by the states of Haryana and Punjab, as well as the Punjab and Haryana High Court building, leading to speculation that, if Haryana does get its own High Court, it would be in one portion of the present building.