With the State Government in principle having decided to write to the Union Government for establishment of permanent Bench of the Odisha HC in western Odisha without waiting to the report of the justice CR Pal Commission, a delegation of lawyers belonging to the undivided Koraput district on Monday met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik reiterating the same demand for the schedule area.
Taking a cue from the Central Action Committee of lawyers of Sambalpur, the Undivided Koraput Schedule District Central Co-ordination and Action Committee (UKSDCCA) has been spearheading the agitation for establishment of a permanent High Court Bench at any suitable place in the undivided Koraput district.
A forty members strong lawyers’ delegation led by convener Trinath Singh and president Prahalad Dora, who is also the former Deputy Speaker of the Odisha legislative Assembly, met the Chief Minister at the State Secretariat and presented a memorandum along with all relevant documents in support of their demands. During the discussion, among others, law Minister Maheswar Mohanty, School and Mass Education Minister Rabi Narayan Nanda, IT , Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Ramesh Majhi, SC and ST Development Minister lal Bihari Himrika and all the BJD MlAs from the district were present.
Referring to the Justice Jaswant Singh Commissions report, the delegation justified the establishment of a High Court Bench in their area stating that undivided Koraput was a schedule area, which is hilly with 92 per cent of the total population under BPl category. Of the total 41,70,382 population, 36,52,558 belong to SC and ST, they said.
Similarly the distance from the principal seat of High Court at Cuttack is around 850 km and distance form Jeypur is over 550 km and it takes more than 24 hours to reach Cuttack for the people of the region.
The district is not having transport facilities and good all weather roads, they said, adding the litigants can ill-afford to go to Cuttack to get justice at a huge cost.
Pin-pointing that Jeypur is the suitable place from all points of view for the High Court Bench and the district meets a majority of criteria laid down by the Justice Jaswant Singh Commission, the delegation urged the Chief Minister to recommend the Center for one bench of the State High Court in the schedule district.
However, the meeting of the lawyers’ group with the Chief Minister at the instance of BJD leaders seems to have political undertone which might make the main demand weak, said sources.