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| The Orissa High Court Bar Association office in Cuttack wears a deserted look on Friday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das |
Cuttack, Sept. 27: For Sisir Kumar Sahoo, a farmer of Kamakhya Nagar in Dhenkanal district, it was a day lost.
He had filed an anticipatory bail application in the high court after a police complaint in connection with a dispute in his area. The petition was listed for hearing today, but it could not be taken up for hearing because of the ongoing lawyers’ cease work.
“He is in urgent need of a judicial remedy against a possible arrest. But, he has to wait till the anticipatory bail petition is listed again,” said Sisir’s counsel.
Pratikshya Singh, a panchayat samiti member, and six other residents of Nilgiri in Balasore district were also disappointed. They had filed a petition seeking intervention against establishment of a stone crusher unit on agricultural land near their village on the ground that it will pose threat to the livelihood of the people of the area.
Their petition was listed today after about a month. But the court could not take up the case for hearing due to the sudden strike by the lawyers since post-lunch session on Thursday. Litigants suffered as more than 250 cases, which were listed before various division benches, also went without hearing as the lawyers boycotted court proceedings today.
The lawyers had yesterday decided to abstain from court work indefinitely in protest against a statement of finance minister Prasanna Acharya on the issue of having a separate bench of the high court in western Odisha.
Orissa High Court Bar Association secretary Janmejaya Katikiya said: “A decision on the future course of action will be taken after taking stock of the situation on September 30, when a delegation of our association will meet the chief minister, the finance minister and the law minister. The delegation will express our grievances relating to the unwarranted statement of the finance minister without waiting for the Justice C.R. Pal Commission’s report vis-a-vis the prevaricating stand of the state government over the issue of a high court bench in western Odisha.”