The Umarkote Bar Association on Thursday agreed to the decision of the Undivided Koraput District Lawyers’ Action Committee to continue their stir till September 9 demanding establishment of a High Court Bench in the undivided district.
Umarkote Bar Association president Prasant Kumar Sahu said, “The undivided Koraput district fulfils all the criteria laid by the Jaswant Singh Commission for establishment of a permanent Bench of the High Court.
This district is located 550 km away from the High Court in Cuttack. It is a tribals-dominated district. We have been demanding a HC Bench for long. But the Central as well as State Governments have been deliberately ignoring our demand.”
Senior lawyer Srinibas Patnaik said a majority of people in the undivided Koraput district lives below the poverty line and they are unable to bear the costs to go faraway Cuttack to pursue legal matters. It has been more than seven months that lawyers across the undivided district have been on agitation demanding a HC Bench in the region.
While court works and legal services in the undivided district have already been hit due to the strike, the situation is going to worsen further in the coming days.