Naveen Patnaik had written a letter to then High Court Chief Justice suggesting that circuit or permanent benches were required in Sambalpur and Berhampur: Why Berhampur in South Orissa?

Boycott over HC bench- Lawyers resent Moily hint at Sambalpur site
The Telegraph, July 20, 2010

Cuttack, July 19: The controversy over the proposed benches of Orissa High Court has resurfaced after 32 months with lawyers not attending work today.


The High Court Bar Association observed a day’s strike to register its protest against the statement reportedly made by Union law minister M. Veerappa Moily on setting up of a bench in Sambalpur.

Moily had stirred the pot while addressing advocates of the Sambalpur District Bar Association on July 14. “If at all there will be a bench of the high court, it will be in Sambalpur. I feel the necessity of a high court bench in this backward region of the state,” Moily had said.

Bar Association president Tahali Mohanty said the general body had decided to observe a day’s strike “as a mark of disapproval” of Moily’s reported statement.

High court proceedings were paralysed with 3,000 and odd lawyers abstaining. Hundreds of litigants had to return after making personal appearances in the court. Chandrasekharpur DAV School principal K.C. Satpathy was one of them.

Satpathy appeared in the court of Justice M.M. Das, but failed to submit an affidavit replying to the showcause notice issued to him in a tuition fee hike case. Justice Das ordered for his personal appearance on July 22 along with the affidavit.

With a strength of 15 judges, including the chief justice, the high court takes up nearly 2,000 cases everyday.

The controversy over the high court benches had first sparked off when chief minister Naveen Patnaik had written a letter to then High Court Chief Justice A.K. Ganguly on November 8, 2007, suggesting that circuit or permanent benches were required in Sambalpur and Berhampur.

As the majority of people in the southern and western regions of the state are poor and tribals, the establishment of high court benches in Berhampur and Sambalpur would go a long way in helping them get justice without delay, the chief minister had argued.

Naveen’s justification in favour of benches at Sambalpur in western Orissa and Berhampur in southern Orissa had led to demands by lawyers of Balasore for a bench in northern Orissa. Lawyers of Bhubaneswar had also demanded shifting of the high court to the state capital.

The High Court Bar Association had boycotted the court for two days from November 15, 2007, and later for 12 days from November 22. They had called off their agitation after the chief justice had urged the lawyers to resume their work. Subsequently, the chief justice had reportedly turned down the proposal for circuit or permanent benches after a sitting of the full court bench over the issue.

Earlier on November 13, 1991 the Orissa High Court had made it clear that the state legislature had no authority to enact law as regards the high court’s seat or seats or change the seat.

“It is Parliament alone which can take a decision in this regard,” a two-judge bench of Justice R.C. Patnaik and Justice D.M. Patnaik had ruled.