Tura, Aug 10: The Williamnagar Bar Association (WBA) on Wednesday sought the setting up of the Meghalaya High Court Bench for Garo Hills region, pointing out that senior lawyers practicing in the region are being deprived of furthering their careers due to its absence, while litigants in various cases are also being affected as the HC is located only in the state capital Shillong.
In its memorandum submitted to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, the association pointed out that litigants in various cases from Garo Hills are being deprived of justice as a large chunk of genuine cases filed by them in the HC are being dropped as they faced problems in travelling the long distance to Shillong.
“Litigants from Garo Hills do not want to pursue pending cases filed by them in the HC as they have to travel the long distance to Shillong for every hearing. Travelling to and from Shillong is time and money consuming and the litigants are ultimately forced to drop genuine cases and are often deprived of justice,” the association said.
In addition to the problems faced by the litigants, the association said that lawyers from Garo Hills do not have the privilege to have experience by practicing in the HC which in turn deprives them of being designated as senior lawyers.
The association, while urging the government to look into the setting up of a separate HC bench anywhere in Garo Hills suggested that the same may also be established at Williamnagar in East Garo Hills.
“Williamnagar has a surplus government land measuring 5,000 Bighas, the larger chunk of which is still lying unutilized. The government would have no difficulty in allotting any suitable land for housing any judiciary related infrastructure,” the association maintained.