Move to bring back courts to Darjeeling Hills

Move to bring back courts to Darjeeling Hills

2 April 2012
DARJEELING, 2 APRIL: As part of its effort to bring the CBI court ~ and other courts ~ back to Darjeeling, the bar association here plans to approach GJMM chief Bimal Gurung for support.
Lawyers from Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong today met and decided to continue their cease-work until all the courts shifted out of the district are brought back to Darjeeling. The lawyers have been unsuccessfully protesting the establishment in Siliguri of the CBI court, which was once located in Darjeeling. Mr JN Patel, chief justice of Kolkata High Court, rejected their complaints on 26 March, and laid  the inauguration stone for the court at Siliguri on 31 March. "We strongly condemn the recent announcement by the state law ministry that it’s useless to have CBI court in Darjeeling, and the laying of its foundation at Siliguri," said Darjeeling Bar Association president Taranga Pandit. "We will soon send a deputation to the chief justice of the Supreme Court in Delhi and ~ if necessary ~ we will also meet the chief minister, to recommend the return of not only the CBI court but also the labours tribunal, land reforms tribunal and other courts that have been shifted from Darjeeling," Mr Pandit said.
"The lawyers from Kalimpong and Kurseong have also joined us to conduct a cease-work in other sub-divisional offices, protesting the shifting of the courts ... our cease-work will continue until our demand is met." Shifting the courts from Darjeeling to other places would result in "a loss of jurisdictional power from Darjeeling and its people," said association vice president Seshmani Gurung. Darjeeling currently has seven courts: those of the district and sessions judge, the additional district and sessions judge, the civil judge (senior division), the chief judicial magistrate, and the judicial magistrate. sns