Lawyers demonstrate on the Siliguri court premises. A Telegraph picture

Siliguri, March 25: Members of the Siliguri Bar Association staged a day-long demonstration on the court premises today, demanding the immediate filling of the vacant post of the additional district and sessions’ judge-1.

The post has been vacant since June 2006.

“About 300 civil and 150 criminal cases are pending in the court at present. Our clients are facing untold miseries because of the prolonged absence of the presiding officer of such an important court,” said Deepak Kumar Nandi, the secretary of the association.

“Filing of appeals and revision of all civil and criminal cases take place in this court. Bail pleas under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 also take place here. Besides, all cases of motor accident claims are also taken up by this court,” Nandi added.

The association will launch a bigger agitation if the post is not filled “immediately”, said Nandi, although he did not set a deadline.

The demand comes a month before the election to the post of office bearers of the bar association, slated for April 25. However, the association secretary insisted that “the timing is just a coincidence”.

“We have been crying hoarse over the vacancy for a long time. We wrote to the government several times, but nothing came of it. We then decided at our executive committee meeting to launch an agitation for a solution,” Nandi added.

Azizul Haque of Phansidewa is one of the many litigants whose wait for justice has been lengthened by the absence of the judge.

“Haque was hit by a government vehicle in 2001 and broke his leg. On August 29, 2005, the additional district judge-I of Siliguri court asked the government agency to pay Rs 41,000 as compensation,” his lawyer Jubli Roy said. “But he never got the money. We wanted to file an execution case against the agency. But with no additional district judge-1 for more than one-and-half years, we have not been able to do so.”

District judge Barun Chandra Pal said he was not authorised to talk to reporters on this matter.