Barak Valley High Court Bench Committee Pushes for Approval Ahead of Crucial November 11 Meeting

Guwahati: The decades-old movement for a permanent Gauhati High Court bench in the Barak Valley reached a critical flashpoint on Saturday, November 7. Broad-based coalitions consisting of lawyers, students, cultural activists, and socio-economic organizations staged an extensive demonstration in Silchar, escalating their demands just ahead of an upcoming, crucial administrative evaluation.

The day's events began with a large, peaceful public gathering organized by the High Court Bench Demand Implementation Committee at the foot of the iconic Shaheed Khudiram Bose statue in Silchar. Demonstrators carried placards and raised slogans calling for immediate decentralization of the judiciary to guarantee accessible, affordable, and swift justice for the southern region of Assam.

Following the public demonstration, a massive rally marched toward the district administration headquarters. The committee subsequently submitted a fresh, comprehensive memorandum addressed to the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court via Cachar District Commissioner Rahul Kumar Gupta.

Speaking on the rapid development, Advocate Dhruba Kumar Saha, the Cachar District President of the committee, emphasized that the campaign has entered its most decisive phase. Over the past seven months, the administrative proposal successfully progressed from the state’s Chief Secretary to the Law Department, which officially forwarded it to the High Court for consideration. A vital Administrative Committee meeting is scheduled for November 11, and the coalition is heavily applying pressure to secure formal judicial clearance.

The cornerstone of the memorandum is the severe geographic inequality faced by residents of the Barak Valley—comprising Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi districts—alongside the neighboring hill district of Dima Hasao. Litigants are currently forced to travel between 350 to 400 kilometres over treacherous, landslide-prone terrain to reach the principal seat of the High Court in Guwahati.

"This grueling journey is regularly worsened by monsoons, flash floods, and collapsing infrastructure, creating an insurmountable economic and physical barrier to justice," Saha stated. He argued that the current structural exclusion effectively denies marginalized and economically disadvantaged communities their fundamental legal rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 21, and 39A of the Indian Constitution.

Protesters further questioned why the valley continues to be ignored when similar outposted benches have successfully been deployed in neighboring regions to ease the regional legal load.

If approved by the Gauhati High Court administration during the upcoming November 11 session, the formal clearance will enable the Assam state government to proceed with budgetary allocations and infrastructure construction, fulfilling a long-standing public grievance that dates back to 1972.

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