BJP Changes Stand, Says No Justification Of HC Bench In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: There is no justification for establishing an Orissa High Court bench in any part of Odisha, Chief Minister Mohan Majhi told the Assembly on Monday.

“As per the Supreme Court verdict, there is no justification in having a bench of Orissa High Court in any part of the state,” the CM said while responding to a query of BJD MLA Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo.

The BJD MLA wanted to know whether the Odisha government had any proposal to set up a circuit bench of HC in Balangir. “Prior to Independence, there was a HC bench in Balangir. As per the accession treaty, it is binding on the state and central governments to provide the same facility. There will be no issue in having a HC bench if the government has the will to do so,” he later told reporters.

Taking a stance contradictory to the BJP government, party’s Sambalpur MLA Jaynarayan Mishra said that they have not retracted their demand for HC bench in western Odisha. “The CM has referred to the SC judgment but population of the state is increasing and so also cases in HC. Why can’t Odisha have a HC bench when there are 3 in Uttar Pradesh and also in other states?” he asked.

Congress legislator C S Raazen Ekka said that a HC bench in western Odisha has been a long-standing demand. “When the previous BJD government had failed to establish a bench for 25 years, the current CM who was then in the Opposition had taken up the cudgels for it. Despite being a tribal, he has failed to understand the problems faced by the poor and the people of his community who are now forced to depend on Cuttack,” he said.

Reacting to the CM’s statement, Ashok Das, convener of Kendriya Kriyanusthan Committee said, “It seems that the CM has not properly gone through the Supreme Court ruling. The apex court has never ruled out justification regarding the High Court bench in western Odisha.”

THE JUDGMENT & BJP’S EARLIER STAND

In December 2022, the Supreme Court said the demand for a bench of the Orissa High Court had become obsolete with the passage of time and the advent of technology and that any hope for a circuit bench was lost with the conduct of agitating lawyers in Sambalpur after hundreds of them barged into the courtroom and threatened judicial officers.

A month prior to that, it had also observed that the state of Odisha was not large enough to merit the demand for the constitution of permanent benches outside Cuttack.

The BJP, which was in the Opposition then, had held the Naveen Patnaik government responsible for the vandalism on the Sambalpur court premises on November 12, 2022, during a protest by lawyers, while attributing it to the delay in sending a concrete proposal on the propose benches to the Centre.

“The delay and lack of commitment of the state government in holding consultation with the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court and Governor of Odisha and providing the composite proposals sought by the Union Law Ministry resulted in the unpleasant law and order situation leading to the arrest of dozens of lawyers in Sambalpur and suspension of licences of 43-odd lawyers for 18 months,” BJP leader and Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari, who was then an MP from Bargarh, had said.

In December 2022, he had also raised the demand of setting up a permanent bench of Orissa High Court in western part of Odisha during Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha. The Centre had then said that a bench can be set up after due consideration of a complete proposal from the state government, incorporating readiness to provide infrastructure and meet the expenditure, along with the consent of the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court and the consent of the Governor of the concerned state.

While noting that the then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had written twice to the Union government on September 5, 2018, and January 11, 2019, on the issue, the central government added that it had received no response on details of the proposed benches.

Pujari also told the media that he had been raising the issue again and again as western Odisha was at a distance of 300 km to 500 km from the principal bench and the poor litigants were being deprived of justice. He further informed about holding consultation with the SC, different high courts, BCI, bar association of different states, district judgeships and legal luminaries about the functioning of the virtual court and its deficiencies. The initial observation was that the physical courts were more functional and effective, he had said.

“The state government set up the Pal Commission to examine the demand being raised in different parts of Odisha. The commission submitted its report around seven to eight years ago. But the state government has neither accepted it, nor rejected it nor made it public. I have been raising the issue again and again for the permanent bench of the Orissa high court in western Odisha without mentioning the location,” he told TOI.

In January this year, the Ministry of Law and Justice again blamed the Odisha government for not submitting a complete proposal to the Centre for the establishment of permanent benches of the Orissa High Court in the state. “This is a clear reflection that Government of Odisha has no interest in establishing a permanent bench of Orissa High Court in western Odisha,” the ministry said adding, the Centre will definitely consider the proposal for setting up a permanent bench of Orissa High Court in western Odisha once the state sends a complete proposal.