Cuttack, Nov. 4: Members of the central action committee of all bar associations of western Odisha today met the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court here to present their case for a permanent bench in their region.
The move comes in the backdrop of 206 more nominations being filed for municipal polls in the region slated for November 22. This takes the total number of nominations to 569.
The committee, in a memorandum, said: “The bar associations of Odisha demand for immediate establishment of a permanent bench of the high court at any place within the Western Odisha Development Council area.”
“Chief Justice A.K. Goel, along with all other judges of the high court, gave a patient hearing to our demand. We demanded location of the permanent bench at any place within the Western Odisha Development Council area according to the guidelines enumerated in the Jaswant Singh Commission report,” central action committee convener Ashok Kumar Dash told The Telegraph today.
“We will continue with our strike. A decision on our future course of action will be taken at a workshop scheduled to be held at Sundargarh on November 10. We hope the Chief Justice will, by then, put forth his views on chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s proposal letter to the Centre for a permanent bench of the high court in western Odisha,” Dash said.
Lawyers from western Odisha have been opposing the municipal polls sticking to their stand of “no court no vote”. However, lawyers of Balangir, Kalahandi and Rourkela have their own agenda as they want the high court bench to be set up in their areas.
The Orissa High Court Bar Association (OHBA), on the other hand, has decided to continue with its cease work agitation against the state government’s decision to have benches in western and southern Odisha.
“The steering committee of the general body today decided to continue the cease work. Decision on future course of action will be taken by the general body on November 11,” OHBA secretary Janmejaya Katikiya told The Telegraph.
“The steering committee has decided to submit an additional memorandum to the Chief Justice on November 8 as we are yet to get any response to our memorandum submitted on October 29,” OHBA vice-president Milan Badu told The Telegraph. The high court lawyers have been on strike since September 26 protesting against Naveen’s proposal on the ground that it had ignored legal precedents.
Naveen had, on September 23, sent a proposal letter to the Centre for establishment of permanent benches of the Orissa High Court in western and southern Odisha.
Union law minister Kapil Sibal had, on October 23, forwarded Naveen’s letter to the Chief Justice “to examine the case and send his views”. Further action would be taken “as per the response from the high court”, the law minister had indicated in his reply to Naveen’s letter.
Sibal had also sought from Naveen “the specific location” of the two benches of the Orissa High Court proposed by him, including “availability of land and resources for infrastructure, staff and other facilities”.
The 10 districts under the Western Odisha Development Council are Bargarh, Balangir, Boudh, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Sambalpur, Sonepur and Sundargarh.
“Through the memorandum made an effort to drive home the point that the earlier demand of the people of western Odisha for establishment of circuit court of the high court no more holds good. The people and different bar associations of the region have now been demanding for establishment of a permanent bench of high court,” said Suveshwar Mishra, a core member of the Central Action Committee.
The memorandum said: “People of western Odisha are not able to approach the High Court in Cuttack because of acute poverty, resulting in heavy decline in cases from this area. Hardly 10-15 per cent of the people of western Odisha approach the high court. People of this region are not able to get justice from the high court.”
Representatives of the Balangir Bar Association also met the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court today. “We presented a representation demanding establishment of a permanent bench of the high court in Balangir town as it is centrally located among the Western Odisha Development Council districts,” association president Binayak Mishra told The Telegraph.
“We also contended that establishment of a bench at Balangir can adequately meet the requirements of the people of the districts of western Odisha in the Koraput-Balangir-Kalahandi (KBK) group. The total population of these districts is one-third the population of the state,” Mishra said.
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