Ladakh Gets Its First High Court Bench in Leh: How High Court Benches Work
The Chief Justice of India, Justice Surya Kant, is to inaugurate the first permanent bench of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in Leh, the capital of the Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh.
Until now, this common High Court sat only at Srinagar and Jammu. People from Ladakh had to travel long distances over high mountain roads for every High Court hearing.
The Union Cabinet approved a permanent bench for Ladakh on 20 August 2026. The President then made a special law for Ladakh, the Union Territory of Ladakh (Sitting of Bench of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in Ladakh) Regulation, 2026, on 27 August 2026, using Article 240 of the Constitution.
The regulation came into force on 5 September 2026 after the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh notified it. The High Court chose Leh as the place of sitting, and a court notice of 14 October 2026 listed cases for hearing in Leh from 21 October 2026.
Under the regulation, judges sit in Ladakh at a place the Chief Justice of the High Court appoints, with the approval of the Lieutenant Governor. The principal seat of the High Court does not change.
The Ladakh administration has said the bench will bring justice closer to the people of this remote, high-altitude UT.
High Court Benches: Permanent Benches and Circuit Benches
A High Court usually has one main building, called its principal seat, for example Chennai for the Madras High Court. But a state can be very large, and some people may live hundreds of kilometres away. So a High Court can also sit at other places in its territory. A group of judges sitting at such a place is called a bench. A bench that works there all year is a permanent bench. A bench whose judges visit and sit there for some days or on a regular schedule is a circuit bench. Both are parts of the same High Court, not new High Courts.
The bench in Leh is the third sitting place of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, after Srinagar and Jammu. It follows the usual idea behind High Court benches: bringing the court closer to people in a remote area. Because Ladakh is a UT without a legislature, the legal basis came from a Presidential regulation under Article 240, which follows the Section 51(3) pattern of sittings decided by the Chief Justice with the approval of the head of the administration.
Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 is the law by which Parliament divided the former state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories. The UT of Jammu and Kashmir has its own elected Legislative Assembly. The UT of Ladakh has no legislature and is run directly by the Centre through a Lieutenant Governor. The Act also kept one High Court for both UTs instead of creating a new one for Ladakh.
Because the 2019 Act gave Ladakh no High Court of its own, its cases went to the common High Court sitting at Srinagar or Jammu. The new bench in Leh fills this gap without creating a separate High Court for Ladakh.
Constitutional Framework for Union Territories (Part VIII, Articles 239–241)
Union Territories are areas governed directly by the Centre. Part VIII of the Constitution (Articles 239 to 241) sets out how they are run. The President administers each UT through an Administrator, called the Lieutenant Governor in some UTs. Some UTs have their own legislature (Delhi, Puducherry, Jammu and Kashmir), while others, like Ladakh, do not.
The Ladakh bench was created through an Article 240 regulation, not through a new Act of Parliament. This shows how, in a UT without a legislature, the President can make law quickly for local needs such as access to the High Court.
- Union Cabinet approval for a permanent Ladakh bench: 20 August 2026
- Regulation promulgated by the President: 27 August 2026; in force: 5 September 2026
- Legal basis: Article 240 of the Constitution read with Section 58(2) of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019
- Sitting place chosen: Leh; hearings listed from 21 October 2026
- The High Court now sits at three places: Srinagar, Jammu and Ladakh
- Ladakh became a UT without a legislature on 31 October 2019
- Section 75, J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019: common High Court for J&K and Ladakh; renamed High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in July 2021
- Pending cases before the High Court (Parliament data, 30 July 2026): 44,557, of which over 6,100 were more than 10 years old