Silchar: A strong demand for the establishment of a permanent or circuit bench of the Gauhati High Court in Barak Valley was reiterated by the High Court Bench Demand Implementation Committee during a press conference held on Friday at the Silchar Bar Association premises.

Addressing the media, the committee’s convenor, advocate Dhruva Kumar Saha, along with advocates Dipak Chakraborty, Prasenjit Deb, Debabrata Das, Dipak Kumar Deb, Swarnali Ghosh, Niladri Roy, Dharmananda Deb, Ranju Deb and Yasin Ali Barbhuiya, said that establishing a High Court bench in Silchar has become an urgent necessity to ensure easier access to justice for nearly four million people living in Barak Valley.

They pointed out that litigants from the three districts of the region — Cachar district, Karimganj district and Hailakandi district — currently have to travel more than 300 kilometres to reach the principal seat of the High Court in Guwahati. According to the speakers, this creates serious financial and logistical difficulties for litigants, especially those from rural and economically weaker sections, and limits effective access to justice.

Presenting comparative figures, the committee members said that more than 4,378 cases originating from Barak Valley are presently pending before the Gauhati High Court. They noted that this number is higher than the caseload handled by several existing benches of the same High Court.

The bench at Kohima has around 1,444 pending cases, while the bench at Aizawl handles about 1,029 cases and the bench at Itanagar deals with nearly 3,103 cases.

The committee further stated that even some independent High Courts have comparatively smaller caseloads. The High Court of Tripura reportedly has about 1,375 pending cases, while the High Court of Meghalaya handles around 1,772 cases. They also noted that the Calcutta High Court bench at Port Blair has only about 479 pending cases.

In comparison, the caseload from Barak Valley is nearly similar to that of the Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench of the Calcutta High Court, where about 4,476 cases are pending.

In view of these figures, the committee questioned why Barak Valley continues to be deprived of a High Court bench despite having a significantly larger volume of litigation. The speakers recalled that the demand for a bench in the region has been raised repeatedly since the 1980s by members of the legal fraternity, civil society groups and the public.

The matter has also been discussed in the Parliament of India, and two Private Members’ Bills proposing a permanent bench at Silchar were introduced in the past.

The committee further noted that major national political parties, including the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, have at different times acknowledged the demand and mentioned support for a High Court bench in Barak Valley in their election manifestos.

Speaking on the occasion, advocate Dharmananda Deb said that the people of Barak Valley are no longer satisfied with assurances. He stated that what the region now expects is the immediate start of the process to establish a bench of the Gauhati High Court in Barak Valley and urged the state government to take the necessary administrative and legal steps without delay.

The committee appealed to both the state and central governments to take urgent action to set up a permanent or circuit bench of the Gauhati High Court in Silchar to ensure faster and more accessible delivery of justice for the people of Barak Valley.