Cuttack: Members of the Citizens Committee of West Odisha on Friday met Orissa High Court chief justice to demand a permanent bench in their region.
The committee was aggrieved over the inordinate delay by the chief justice in giving his views on the chief minister's proposal. The Centre had asked the chief justice to examine the proposal and give his view about four years ago.
"Chief Justice Vineet Saran gave a patient hearing to our demand. We demanded a view on the chief minister's proposal be given at the earliest," said committee convener Bhagabat Prasad Nanda.
"The chief justice assured us of taking up the matter with the chief minister shortly. We will adopt a wait-and-watch policy. But, we will be left with no option but to take the protest path if our demand is not attended to within a reasonable time," Nanda said.
The committee members met the chief justice after hundreds of lawyers from west Odisha staged a demonstration near the Odisha Judicial Academy on Friday. On November 4, 2013, members of the central action committee of all bar associations of west Odisha had met Chief Justice A.K. Goel and presented their case for a permanent bench in their region.
"We had then demanded immediate establishment of a permanent bench of the high court at any place within the West Odisha Development Council area," said the central action committee convener Ashok Kumar Das, who was present here on Friday.
The 10 districts under the council include Bargarh, Balangir, Boudh, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Sambalpur, Sonepur and Sundargarh.
"We hope the chief justice will put forth his views soon on chief minister Naveen Patnaik's proposal letter to the Centre for a permanent bench of the high court in west Odisha," Das said.