Shimla: Lawyers opposing the move to shift the district courts into a new premises today burn’t the effigy of former chief justice VK Gupta for having got the new judicial complex constructed even though the lawyers bar association were against it.
Earlier the lawyers struck work for half the day that found support with the cities shopkeepers, who downed shutters till lunch in support of their cause.
“We are against moving into the new judicial complex at Kacchi Ghatti,†said Harish Khanna, president district courts bar association.
When it was decided to move the district courts into a new complex, a site was selected at Khalini, which was agreeable to the association, he said.
Plans were drawn up and even costs had been worked out but mysteriously the new site at Kacchi Ghati was finalized without taking the association into confidence, he added.
The district bar association demands institution of a CBI inquiry into the whole plan of shifting the judicial complex, the award of contract for constructing the complex and how after violating green norms 600 trees were felled in a demarcated protected forest, said Khanna.
As the whole project was being moved at the behest of the then chief justice, we hold him responsible for having bartered the interests of the lawyers and litigants by laying the foundation stone of the new judicial complex, he added.
Earlier in the lawyers, in the presence of police, protest marched through the Lower Bazar and culminated the day’s protest by burning an effigy of the former chief justice.
The district bar president said that in response to a writ by the association, the High Court has asked the state government to respond to what it intended to do with the lawyers plea of using the new judicial complex for some other purpose.
Our further course of agitation would take shape only after hearing the governments response, as the case comes up for hearing on Tuesday next, said Khanna.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
Who will judge the judiciary?