JUDGMENT :

Ramesh Ranganathan, J.

1. Advocates have been boycotting Courts on all Saturdays, for the past more than 35 years, in the entire District of Dehradun and in several parts of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts. The genesis of this peculiar form of protest is traceable to Western Uttar Pradesh, of which the aforesaid districts formed part of, before the State of Uttarakhand was created on 09.11.2000. Advocates from Western Uttar Pradesh have been on strike on all Saturdays, for the past three and half decades, in pursuit of their demand that a High Court Bench be established in this region. This problem, which commenced in these parts more than 15 years before the State of Uttarakhand came into being, continues to prevail in several parts of the aforesaid Districts of the State of Uttarakhand for the past nearly two decades even after creation of the State. The Rule of law is being, thereby, undermined. Ex-Capt. Harish Uppal vs. Union of India and Another, (2003) 2 SCC 45 and R. Muthukrishnan vs. Registrar General of the High Court of Madras, (2019) AIR SC 849.

2. T