Meerut did not give Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath a quiet arrival on Monday, September 21. It gave him a confrontation between political power and a decades-old demand for easier access to justice.
September 21, 2026: As Yogi Adityanath arrived in Meerut for a BJP organisational conference at Subharti University, lawyers from the district court moved towards the route carrying their demand for a High Court bench in western Uttar Pradesh. The protest came just days after lawyers across 22 western UP districts had intensified their agitation, including work stoppages and plans for a nyay yatra.
The lawyers wanted their memorandum to reach the Chief Minister, but they did not get very far. According to reports, the procession was stopped roughly 100 metres from the Meerut court premises. Police deployed barricades and detained senior office-bearers of the Bar Association, including its president and secretary, as the lawyers attempted to move forward.
And there, rather neatly, was the day’s entire argument compressed into a few metres of road: the lawyers wanted the judiciary brought closer to western UP; the state wanted the protesters kept away from the Chief Minister.
The demand itself is hardly new. Lawyers in western Uttar Pradesh have been campaigning for a High Court bench in the region for decades. Their argument is fundamentally geographical as much as political. Litigants from western districts currently have to travel to the Allahabad High Court for cases falling within its jurisdiction, creating additional costs and logistical burdens for people who may already be struggling to pursue prolonged litigation.
The campaign has gathered fresh momentum in recent weeks. On September 16, advocates in 22 districts abstained from judicial work as part of the agitation. They announced that they would continue staying away from court work every Wednesday and support a nyay yatra. They also sought an announcement on a western UP bench before the next Assembly election.
On September 19, the message became even more explicitly political, with lawyers raising the slogan “Bench nahi to vote nahi” during demonstrations at the Meerut court.
The timing of Monday’s confrontation was therefore significant. Yogi Adityanath was in Meerut precisely as the BJP intensified its organisational activity in western Uttar Pradesh. The party’s national president Nitin Nabin was also scheduled to be in the region on September 21 and 22, with the Chief Minister participating in the programme.
The administration’s response was to prevent the march from reaching the programme. Reports said senior officials, including police and civil administration officers, reached the spot as arguments broke out between lawyers and police. A bus carrying lawyers towards the programme was reportedly stopped, and discussions followed. The administration subsequently offered a meeting with a delegation of lawyers with the Chief Minister later in the afternoon.
The issue has also reached the Union government. Earlier this month, representatives of the Western Uttar Pradesh High Court Bench Central Struggle Committee met Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and were told that discussions on the demand were taking place.
The political pressure has consequently been rising. The lawyers have linked the demand to the coming electoral cycle. Their recent slogan, “No bench, no vote,” is not a declaration from the government or an established electoral fact. It is the political message being advanced by sections of the protesting legal community.
And Monday’s scene in Meerut gave that campaign a striking visual. On one side stood lawyers in black coats, emerging from the court that represents the institution they want brought closer to western Uttar Pradesh. On the other stood barricades and police, separating them from the Chief Minister who was only a short distance away.
The irony was almost too perfect for politics to resist: The lawyers are demanding that justice travel less distance. On Monday, their own demand was stopped after travelling barely a hundred metres, while the BJP conference continued. Monday’s hundred metres merely gave the argument a measuring tape.
JANPATH NEWS NETWORK (JNN)
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