Other States - Orissa   

Plea to shift High Court ridiculed

Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

Divisive issue: Lawyers of Bhubaneswar taking out a motorcycle rally on Friday. —

CUTTACK: Ridiculing the ongoing agitation being spearheaded by the Bhubaneswar Bar Association demanding that the High Court be shifted from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar, lawyers in Cuttack alleged that the present situation had arisen due to what they called the thoughtless decision made by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

“Since the Chief Minister is trying to play to the gallery over the issue of shifting the High Court or setting up its circuit benches elsewhere, the lawyers across the State are encouraged to stage stirs making undesirable demands,” alleged High Court Bar Association secretary B.S. Tripathy.

He said the High Court, in a judgment in 1991, clarified that the State legislature had no authority to enact law as regards the seat or seats of the High Court or to change the seat of the High Court. “It is the Parliament alone which can take a decision in this regard,” he clarified, quoting the verdict delivered by Justice R.C. Patnaik and Justice D.M. Patnaik more than 15 years ago.

“High Court is a temple, its presiding deity is justice. Lawyers are its priests. Rests are votaries discharging their assigned role.

Entertaining an idea of shifting a temple is considered sacrilege except in exceptional circumstances and when it is unavoidable,” said the opening sentences of the judgment delivered on November 13, 1991.

The verdict disapproved a move made by then Orissa Government in early 90s to shift the seat of Orissa High Court from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar. Entertaining a PIL, the judges had observed: “The High Court, the apex court of the State, is not a mere lifeless edifice of bricks and mortar standing on a parcel of land. It is a living entity.”

The judgment passed in 1991 had its relevance now in view of the series of agitations currently being launched by the Bhubaneswar Bar Association demanding shifting of the High Court from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar, Mr. Tripathy said.

While the then Biju Patnaik Government made a statement on the floor of the Assembly that the government had taken a decision to shift the High Court from Cuttack to Bhubaneswar, Mr. Naveen Patnaik now had written to the Chief Justice of the State to consider setting up permanent benches of the High Court at Berhampur and Sambalpur.

“These moves of the government to please a section of the people have given rise to lawlessness in the State, posing a challenge to the judiciary system as lawyers from every nook and corner of the State are now staging agitations demanding circuit benches of the High Court at their respective places,” alleged members of the Cuttack Bar who were boycotting the court proceedings for the last two days in protest against the government’s move.

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