GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday resigned from the Gauhati High Court Bar Association following differences over the shifting of the court premises to a new location.
He was a practising lawyer before becoming an MLA for the first time in 2001.
“It is within my duties as the Chief Minister to construct the new High Court building. However, the bar association is opposed to this decision. Given the conflict of interest, I have resigned from the bar association,” Sarma told the media.
Last month, the state’s Advocate General Devajit Saikia, who is also the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, had resigned from the bar association on a similar ground.
The bar association is opposed to the shifting of the court complex from Guwahati to Rangmahal on the north bank of the Brahmaputra. It protested the government’s unilateral decision.
The association’s argument is that since the place where the court is being shifted lacks adequate infrastructure, it will affect not just the efficiency of legal proceedings but also litigants and legal professionals.