The Garo Hills Advocates Union has urged the State government to establish a bench of the Meghalaya High Court in the Garo Hills in order to provide equal opportunities in securing justice.
The union in a memorandum to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said that many cases from the Garo Hills are lying pending before the High Court.
Stating that cases in the High Court entails heavy expenses, which poor litigants from Garo Hills region can barely afford, the union said most of the cases are being dropped by the litigants at the district level and not pursued at the High Court. “Most of the litigants are handicapped as they cannot obtain an immediate relief by appealing to the High Court in some very important cases being prevented by the long distance coupled with the heavy expenditure that would be incurred for meeting the travelling, food, accommodation and other expenditures,” the advocates said.
The union said when there are appeal cases from the lower courts, public litigants have to come to the High Court in Shillong for any contempt of court cases even when the orders of the lower court judges are disobeyed and disrespected. Hence most of the contempt of court cases had to be dropped and not pursued, they added.
Furthermore, the union said lawyers from Garo Hills districts are being deprived of practice experience in the High Court as it is not possible due to the distance and when they have to also practice in the lower courts at the same time.
“The lawyers are continuously deprived of being designated as senior advocates besides foregoing other opportunities and benefits that follow. Therefore all the senior lawyers practising in different courts in Garo Hills districts die or end up without ever being designated as senior advocates,” the union said.
Moreover, the union said, the litigants from Garo Hills region are also deprived of the privilege of being defended by the lawyers who are practising in Garo Hills region who have better knowledge about the special culture and traditions of the litigants hailing from the Garo Hills region.
