Sikkim Has Been Declared India's First Fully Paperless State Judiciary. The Citizens Trying To Reach That Bench In Person Have Not Had A Working Commercial Airport For Twenty-Three Months And Counting.

On May 1, 2026, at the National Conclave on Technology and Judicial Education at Chintan Bhawan, Gangtok, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant formally declared Sikkim India's first fully paperless state judiciary. Standing alongside CM Prem Singh Tamang-Golay, Sikkim High Court Chief Justice A Muhamed Mustaque, and Attorney General R Venkataramani, the CJI observed that 'in the past, distance was measured not in kilometres but in days of travel, uncertainty, and hardship'. He was, accidentally, exactly right. Sikkim's only commercial airport — Pakyong, ceremonially India's '100th operational airport' when it opened in 2018 — has been suspended since June 2024 after SpiceJet pulled its sole route. As of May 2026 there are still no scheduled commercial flights operating or open for booking; the Ministry of Civil Aviation last met SpiceJet, IndiGo and Alliance Air about resumption in August 2025. Construction work to extend the runway from 1.75 km to 2.75 km is expected 'by the end of 2026'. The CJI's flight in had to land elsewhere. Sikkim's litigants can now file digital writs from anywhere in the state, assuming National Highway 10 isn't blocked by a landslide and the network is up. The bench has been digitised. The runway has not.