Justice comes to the mountains: Ladakh gets its own High Court bench, a green wall, and filing from home

For a family in a remote Ladakh village, a court case once meant a long, expensive journey to Srinagar or Jammu. That changed on Sunday, when Chief Justice of India Surya Kant inaugurated the new Ladakh Bench of the High Court at Melongthang, Leh — bringing hearings home to the mountains. The launch came with four practical gifts: an e-filing portal and document system so papers can be filed without the journey, an online recruitment portal that makes court jobs transparent to apply for, and a 'Green Wall' planting initiative marking the bench's environmental commitment. It is a simple, powerful idea: the law should travel to the people, not the other way round.

SDG 16 · Peace, justice and strong institutions — Mechanism: institutional program