The DJ 4 plot, where the court is supposed to come up, is now a garbage dump. Picture by Bhubaneswarananda Halder

Salt Lake’s chances of getting a court of an additional district and sessions judge are tied up in red tape. A plot allotted for the purpose is lying vacant since 1998 but requires some paperwork for the building to come up. Till then, for cases related to civil litigation, matrimonial suits or any serious criminal charges beyond the purview of the additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM), residents have to travel all the way to courts located 25 km away in Barasat or eight km away in Sealdah.

“I have to plod to Barasat court every day,” laments Mriganko Chowdhury, a resident of Baisakhi fighting a case over the breach of a contract. “It is a waste of time and money. A trip to Barasat means the whole day gets blocked. My business is suffering.”

AB Block’s Rupa Ghosh has been fighting a property case since 2008, and has been having to travel to Sealdah Civil and Criminal Court. “The court’s jurisdiction covers such a large area that it has too many cases pending at any given time of the year. My lawyers get a date for hearing at intervals of six to 12 months. Once Bidhannagar sub-division gets its own court not only will it be easier to reach but it will also only handle cases within the sub-division. So our cases would get resolved quickly,” she says.

“Bidhannagar is the only sub-division in North 24-Parganas not to have a court of an additional district and sessions judge,” says Samir Das, secretary of Bidhannagar Bar Association.

It is not that lack of space is in the way. The foundation stone of the court of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM), which later became the ACJM, was laid in 1998 in presence of former chief minister Jyoti Basu. “A plot at DJ 4, measuring about 3 bigha 18 cottahs, was allotted to the court. The plan was the office of the sub-divisional officer (SDO) and the ACJM court would be housed in the same plot. Then in 2008, we came to know that municipal affairs department is constructing an office for the SDO by occupying the whole plot. The Bidhannagar Bar Association immediately appealed to the then district magistrate Bandana Roy to look into the matter. She shot off a letter to the then SDO Tapas Chowdhury. Subsequently the construction stopped. Then in 2010, the plot was divided. Around 39 cottahs were allotted to the court and handed over to law department,” said Das.

The court in Sealdah where Salt Lake residents now have to travel to for a variety of cases. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

A plan was drawn up for the construction of an eight-storeyed building at DJ 4. The project cost was estimated at Rs 3 crore. “In the building plan, it was shown that two separate quarters would be built for magistrates. But the plan was not sanctioned as the plot is a non-residential one,” said Das.

This is where the construction plans have got stuck. The character of the non-residential plot needs to be changed. But repeated requests of the law department to the urban development department are falling on deaf ears. “It is more than six months now that the file is lying with urban development department. They are not taking any decision regarding the conversion,” said Das.

Debasish Sen, principal secretary of urban development department, promised to look into the matter. “In case the plot is used in part for a changed purpose, we allow up to 20 per cent use of the built-up area for the associated purpose. But if the use for the associated purpose takes up more that 20 per cent of the built-up area then a special permission needs to be taken,” said Sen.

Street legal

The only door which residents seeking justice can now knock on is that of the ACJM, Bidhannagar. It came into being on July 1, 2005, when the court of the SDJM, Bidhannagar, housed on the second floor of Mayukh Bhavan, was redesignated on July 1, 2005.

It has provided some relief by handling all criminal cases that can be tried by a magistrate registered with the Bidhannagar south, north and east police stations as well as electronic complex and Lake Town police stations, all of which are under the Bidhannagar sub-division.

Thefts, car accidents, cheating and fraud, charges on the basis of the Arms Act and Indian Penal Code Section 498A (dowry law) and cases dealing with small quantity of narcotics are tried here.

'But more serious crimes like murder, dowry death, attempt to murder, abetment of attempt to commit suicide, dacoity, rape etc cannot be tried here as it requires to be heard by an additional district and sessions judge. Even matrimonial suits (divorce, restitution of conjugal rights, judicial separation etc) have to be filed before the district judge, Barasat. In the absence of an additional district and sessions judge, we have to travel all the way to the district judge's court in Barasat for even criminal revisions (when the order of a judge passed in course of a hearing in a lower court is challenged in an upper court) or application of bail under Section 439 of Code of Criminal Procedure,' said Soumyajit Raha, one of the founder executive members of Bidhannagar Bar Association.

Nor can any civil cases be heard here. If any resident wants to file a civil litigation, he has to do so before the civil judge at Sealdah Civil and Criminal Court. Lawsuits of a higher valuation (Rs 60,000 and above) are heard by the civil judge at Barasat. 'Civil suits includes any sort of injunction, title suits, eviction suits, libel defamation, slander defamation, trespassing, public nuisance, breach of contract, divorce, adoption etc,' informed Raha.

Postscript

Meanwhile, the office of the SDO is set to shift from the third floor of Mayukh Bhavan to DJ 4. The Bidhannagar Bar Association had requested the district judge, Barasat, last September to allow the additional district and sessions judge’s court to be established in the space once it is vacated. “But to date we have not received any response. It would have solved the problem of the litigants of Salt Lake till a building can come up for the court in DJ Block,” rued Das.