SAMBALPUR: Lawyers of District Bar Association took out a rally here on Saturday protesting the visit of Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera over the demand of establishment of Orissa High Court bench in Western Odisha. Behera had come to Sambalpur to attend the inaugural function of the year-long platinum jubilee celebration of Gangadhar Meher University (GMU).
The lawyers took out a rally from the Kachery Road and were supposed to go to GMU to protest Behera’s visit. However, police stopped them near Church Chowk. The lawyers jostled with the police personnel deployed there. As many as 134 lawyers of District Bar Association were taken into preventive detention. Some of the lawyers, though, managed to reach the main entrance of the GMU holding black flags and raised slogans against Behera there. Police picked up the lawyers in front of the entrance of the university before the arrival of the Finance Minister.
Bar Association president Bijitendriya Pradhan said the State Government wrote a letter to the Centre to take steps for establishment of the High Court bench in Western Odisha in 2013. In response to the letter, the Union Law Ministry urged the State Government to give specific proposal with the opinion of the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court.
However, after the correspondence, neither the Centre nor the State proceeded further, he informed. He also said they had tried to call on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over the issue but they have not been able to meet him yet. Pradhan said they were taking out the rally in a peaceful manner but police arrested them.
The Finance Minister, however, said it is their democratic right to raise the demand. “If the State Government had the power to establish the High Court bench, it would have taken steps in this regard,” he said, adding that the Chief Minister has already written a letter to the Union Government over the demand.
The lawyers were later released on PR bonds.