Family court inaugurated in Berhampur by Chief Justice of Orissa High Court

Ganjam District Bar demands permanent bench of the High Court in the city

A family court was inaugurated on the premises of the Berhampur court on Saturday by the Chief Justice of the High Court, Justice V. Gopalagouda. During his visit to Ganjam district, Justice Gopalgouda also inaugurated the court of the civil judge (junior division) cum judicial magistrate 1st Class at Buguda. He also attended a legal literacy camp at R. Damodarpalli village, which was organised by the Orissa State Legal Services Authority. Justice Das was accompanied by Justice I. Mohanty of the High Court.

The Chief Justice also interacted with the members of the Ganjam Bar Association during his visit to the city. The lawyers of the association through a memorandum put forward their list of long-standing demands before Justice Das.

Their main demand was establishment of a permanent bench of the High Court in the city for the benefit of inhabitants of south Orissa.

The lawyers also wanted filling up of vacant post of second additional district judge in the Berhampur court, construction of a well equipped lawyers' auditorium, posting of magistrates to fill up vacancies of two posts of JMFC. They wanted the MACT court and the office of the Assistant Commissioner Endowment to be shifted to the vicinity of district court. There was demand for establishment of a special court in the city to deal with disproportaionate assets cases arising from south Orissa.

The Ganjam Bar Association demanded the infrastructure on the court premises to be improved. They wanted the existing library building to be demolished and a double storied structure to be built in its place.

Supply of adequate furniture, books and other amenities to the Bar Association also found place in the memorandum.

The lawyers were of the opinion that the entire land of the SDJM court in the city which is under the Revenue department should be transferred to Judicial department for construction of a multi-storeyed building at the spot to locate all the courts of the city at one place.

Source: The Hindu

Prof. Jayant Mohapatra appointed V-C of Berhampur University

Governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare on July 24 appointed new Vice-Chancellor for Berhampur University. Professor Jayant Mohapatra, who is registrar of Berhampur University, would replace outgoing Vice-Chancellor Prof. B. K. Sahu whose tenure is ending on July 26. “Prof Mohapatra has been appointed for a period of three years. He is heading Department of Political Science of the university. Besides, he has assumed responsibilities in different capacities,” said a release issued by Raj Bhawan. It said the 52-year-old political science professor was an assessor of NAAC, Bangalore. According to the release, he had guided 13 scholars on various research projects producing 12 Ph.Ds. Transparency in administration will be my top priority. Emphasis will be given on quality education, said Prof. Mohapatra while speaking to mediapersons.

Students’ body battles for HC bench in Berhampur

Permanent bench of High court in Berhampur demanded

BERHAMPUR: South Orissa Students' Association (SOSA) has expressed its solidarity with the agitating lawyers of South Orissa and has demanded early establishment of a permanent bench of Orissa High court at Berhampur- the nerve centre of activities in southern part of the State. SOSA president RP Tripathy said southern Odisha has remained the forgotten frontier of the State with alarming levels of poverty and underdevelopment. While majority people of South Odisha are living under abject poverty and backwardness their genuine demands have been repeatedly overlooked by the state government. The students' body pointed out that lawyers had been demanding establishment of a High Court bench in the city for the past six decades. Both the lawyers and general public of south Orissa have resorted to agitations for this demand in the past. The SOSA activists urged the lawyers in Cuttack, especially the ones of the Orissa High Court, to get out of their insensitiveness towards the problems of people from far off areas to approach the High Court located in Cuttack. It may be noted that the Bar Association of the Orissa High Court and the Cuttack Bar Association boycotted courts on Monday to protest against the statement of Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily in favour of the establishment of High Court benches in Orissa during his visit to Sambalpur. The SOSA activists through a press release expressed surprise that how delivering justice at the doorstep of the poor through benches of the High Court could be opposed by them. They pointed out that former President of India V.V. Giri and former Chief Minister of Orissa Biju Patnaik had openly supported the demand for establishment of High Court bench in Berhampur. They alleged that delay in establishment of permanent benches of the High Court in parts of the state was depriving people of south Orissa their right to get justice at their doorstep.

While recommending a High Court Bench at Berhampur in 2007, the State government opined that there was an urgent need for this in view of the backwardness of the region, popular mood and large number of cases originating from here. As per SOSA, cases from south Orissa constitute more than 30 per cent of the total cases in the Orissa High Court. The geographical spread of south Orissa makes the need of a High Court bench in Berhampur an inevitable one. They said that Berhampur had all necessary infrastructure for the establishment of a permanent bench of the High Court and it was well connected to all parts of south Orissa. The SOSA urged the lawyers of the Orissa High Court to give up stubbornness and support the demand for the interest of the general public. They urged the Union Law Ministry and the State government to expedite the process of establishment of High Court benches in the State.

Sources: The Pioneer, The Hindu, OrissaDiary, KalingaTimes, OrissaBarta