CUTTACK: For the first time all fourteen judges of Orissa High Court met on Tuesday and issued notices to the State Bar Council, High Court Bar Association and all district bar associations to show cause why abstaining from court work should not be held as contempt of court.
The notices were issued after registering a suo motu contempt case on boycott of court work by lawyers. The case has been posted to October 21 for hearing along with the responses. Notices were also issued to the chief secretary, home secretary and law secretary in this regard.
In a resolution, Odisha High Court Bar Association (OHCBA) had earlier sought abolition of the collegium system, the introduction of National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) for appointment of HC judges and called for a nationwide strike against the collegium system in the country.
On Monday, members of OHCBA 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.
Though on July 15 the OHCBA decided to suspend the agitation till Supreme Court collegium took a decision, the members had resumed boycott of court work after the Supreme Court collegium on October 3 recommended elevation of advocate Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi and District & Sessions Judge Bibhu Prasad Routray to judge of Orissa High Court.
The association on Monday had also sent a representation to union minister for Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad protesting recommendation of Sanjeeb Panigrahi, who is practising in Delhi and has a very few briefs in Orissa High Court, for his appointment as a judge by the Supreme Court collegium.