CUTTACK: Members of Orissa High Court Bar Association (OHCBA) on Monday resumed protest against recommendation of lawyers, who are not regular practitioners of High Court for appointment as HC judges, and abstained court work after lunch session. The OHCBA’s executive body had first passed a resolution on April 25 opposing recommendation of names of advocates who purportedly did not practice regularly in the High Court. The OHCBA had dubbed those lawyers as outsiders.
On June 17, the association members started boycotting the Courts of Chief Justice and two other senior most judges who constitute the Orissa High Court collegium which recommends names to the Supreme Court collegium for appointment as judge of the High Court. But, on July 15 OHCBA decided to suspend the agitation till Supreme Court collegium took a decision.
On May 7, the High Court collegium had recommended 12 names. In a resolution on October 3, the Supreme Court collegium recommended elevation of advocate Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi and District & Sessions Judge Bibhu Prasad Routray to judge of Orissa High Court.“We have started abstaining court work to protest the recent resolution of Supreme Court collegium. The next course of action will be decided at our general body meeting on Wednesday at 1.15 pm”, OHCBA president Gopal Krushna Mohanty told mediapersons.
The association on Monday also sent a representation to Union Minister for Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad for reconsideration of a name recommended by the Supreme Court collegium in its October 3 resolution for appointment of judge in Orissa High Court.
In the representation OHCBA alleged that the Supreme Court collegium had “recommended the name of Sanjeeb Panigrahi, who is practicing in Delhi and has a very few briefs in the High Court of Orissa”. Alleging that “the recommendation has been influenced by a big corporate house” OHCBA urged for a CBI probe into its representation to the Union Minister Law and Justice.