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Agartala, March 10: Tripura’s dream of having a separate high court is all set to materialise on March 25 when Union minister for law Ashwini Kumar will formally inaugurate the building in the presence of Supreme Court Chief Justice Altamas Kabir.
The infrastructure for the high court is ready and follows an amendment last year of the North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act.
Disclosing this, Tripura law secretary Datamohan Jamatya said the state government had been “verbally instructed” to be ready for inauguration on March 25. “According to the schedule we received, the judges and Chief Justices of Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya high courts would be administered oaths of office on March 23. The Meghalaya and Manipur high courts will be inaugurated on March 24 while the Tripura High Court will be inaugurated on March 25,” he said.
He said the final schedule was yet to arrive, but everything had been kept in readiness for the March 25 inauguration.
Jamatya said the presidential notification for constitution of the separate high courts in Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura would be issued soon and added that the consultations over this between the Union law ministry, Supreme Court and the President’s office were now in the final stages.
The appointment of chief justices for the three new high courts in the region had been finalised by a collegium appointed by the Supreme Court.
“Dipak Gupta of Himachal Pradesh High Court will be the Tripura Chief Justice, T. Meenakumari of Patna High Court will be the Meghalaya Chief Justice while Abhay Manohar of Chhattishgarh High Court will take over in Manipur,” Jamatya said.
He said Tripura had sought five permanent judges, including the Chief Justice, but the names of the former had not yet been finalised. “We are yet to know the names of the permanent judges but are expecting a communication soon. The Chief Justice’s quarters and residential facilities for other judges have been also been built.”
Jamatya said Tripura had been demanding a separate high court for a long time and a number of resolutions passed in the state Assembly had been put forward to the Union law ministry. “The lone impediment to constitution of a separate high court was a provision in the North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act, 1971, which had provided for a single high court in Guwahati for the entire region. There were separate ben-ches in all states but these cou-ld not substitute for separate high courts. Last year, the act was amended to pave the way for creation of the separate high courts,” he said, adding that the high court would fulfil a long-cherished dream of the people of Tripura.
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