Darjeeling, March 16.TT: The Darjeeling Bar Association today said the inauguration of a special CBI court tomorrow in Siliguri, shifted there from the hills, has been cancelled because of protests by lawyers who alleged that the plains town was being given more importance than the district headquarters.
But cards for the programme, which was to be attended by law minister Moloy Ghatak, has already been distributed by the secretary of the state judicial department, Binod Kumar Srivastava, and Darjeeling district and sessions judge, Subrata Mitra.
Taranga Pandit, president of the Bar Association, today said: “Although invitation cards had been sent, we were informed by the district and sessions judge that the inauguration of a special CBI court has been cancelled. We had been protesting the transfer of the special CBI court from Darjeeling and until the court is reinstated here, the protests will continue.”
Calcutta High Court sources confirmed that the inauguration of the CBI court was off. “The inauguration of the CBI court in Siliguri has been deferred because of some problems,” said Lakshmi Chandra Seal, the secretary to the chief justice.
Transfer of offices from the hills to the plains has always been an emotional issue for the people here, who allege that the importance of Darjeeling, which is the district headquarters, is being undermined by the sub-divisional town of Siliguri. The plains town has over the years grown into a major commercial hub in the region.
Seshmani Gurung, vice-president of the lawyers’ association, added: “The special CBI court had been set up in Darjeeling in 1995 but in 2006 the court was wound up and transferred to Calcutta. The state government had cited lack of cases for the shift. But to our surprise we found that the government is setting it up in Siliguri.”
The Bar Association had gone on a four-day cease work from February 1 early this year to protest the transfer of the court. “If the government does not give us a concrete assurance on restarting the CBI court in Darjeeling by Monday, we will soon start a pendown strike,” said Dinesh Chandra Rai, the executive member of the association.
Lawyers in Darjeeling claimed a number of CBI cases were pending in the hills. “There are at least 41 CBI cases from the hills and the transfer of the court is inconveniencing people,” said Gurung.
Another executive member of the association, Bishal Rai, said the importance of the district headquarters is slowly diminishing. “Siliguri now has the court of civil judge senior division. The additional district and sessions judge in Siliguri can also handle cases of the district and sessions judge (who sits in Darjeeling),” said Rai. He added that the consumer court had been transferred from the present court complex in Darjeeling to the Queens Hill area at Kakjhora, 3km away, inconveniencing lawyers.
Darjeeling now has a district and sessions judge court, three additional district and session judge courts, a civil judge (senior division) court, a chief judicial magistrate’s court and a judicial magistrate’s court. Lawyers said with Siliguri also having most of these courts, the importance of the district courts in Darjeeling has diminished.
The association expressed its gratitude to the Mamata Banerjee government for deciding to put on hold the setting up of the special (CBI) court in Siliguri. “On behalf of the association, the hill MLAs had also met the chief minister on March 12. The decision to cancel the meeting tomorrow is probably an outcome of the March 12 meeting and our earlier agitation,” said Pandit.
The foundation for a new court building is also scheduled to be laid on the Siliguri Court premises at 12.30pm tomorrow.
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