Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant on Sunday (October 18) inaugurated the Ladakh Bench of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh at Melongthang in Leh — the first time a High Court bench will sit in the Union Territory, ending decades in which Ladakh's litigants had to travel to Srinagar or Jammu for High Court proceedings.

The inauguration was attended by Supreme Court judges, Attorney General R. Venkataramani, Ladakh Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena and Chief Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati of the J&K and Ladakh High Court. Saxena called the day a historic milestone that fulfils a long-standing demand of the people of Ladakh.

Addressing the gathering at about 3,500 metres above sea level, the CJI said what matters is not how high the court sits, but how close it now stands to the people it serves. He also announced that, once adequate video-conferencing facilities are available to lawyers of the new Bench, the Supreme Court will list all matters coming from Ladakh on a single day and hear them day-to-day through video conferencing, so Leh and Kargil lawyers can argue without travelling to Delhi.

The CJI also launched digital initiatives for the Bench — an e-filing portal, a document management system and an online recruitment portal — along with a Green Wall initiative. The Bench was enabled by a Presidential Regulation promulgated on August 27, 2026, which came into force on September 5, 2026.

Sources: PTI, Live Law, India Legal.