Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai inaugurated the Bombay High Court’s new circuit Bench in Kolhapur district on Sunday (August 17, 2025).
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde were present on the occasion.
The Bench was inaugurated after years of demands raised by different stakeholders to ease the burden for litigants and lawyers facing difficulty in travelling to Mumbai.
At present, apart from the principal Bench in Mumbai, the HC has two more Benches — at Nagpur in the Vidarbha region and Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) in the Marathwada region. A third Bench of the High Court sits in adjoining Goa.
On August 1, Bombay High Court Chief Justice Alok Aradhe issued a notification appointing Kolhapur as a circuit Bench. The Kolhapur Bench will be functional from August 18 with a division Bench and two single Benches. The new Bench will have jurisdiction over six districts — Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Kolhapur, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg. The Kolhapur division Bench will comprise Justices M.S. Karnik and Sharmila Deshmukh. Justices S.G. Dige and S.G. Chapalgaonkar will preside over the single Benches.
