The demand by the Kolhapur Bar Association to establish a circuit bench of the Bombay High Court in Kolhapur has once again faced a setback, leaving litigants and practising advocates from six districts of Maharashtra in a difficult situation. Surprisingly, the association has been making this demand for the past thirty-five years, but the request has not been fulfilled until now.

Interestingly, the much-desired demand for a circuit bench of the Bombay High Court in Kolhapur gained momentum last year (March 2022) when the former Chief Minister of the state, Uddhav Thackeray, wrote a letter to the then Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, Dipankar Datta. This development brought hope to both litigants and practising advocates in Kolhapur.