Kohima: With the Gauhati High Court completing 75 years on Wednesday, the legal fraternity in Nagaland expressed hope of having a separate and independent High Court.
Justice Kakheto Sema while addressing the celebrations held at Kohima bench reminded that Nagaland is the second oldest state in the northeast after being carved out of erstwhile undivided Assam in 1963.
Over the years, he observed that the judiciary had grown by leaps and bounds in the state. The need to have a separate and independent High Court for Nagaland, he said, was voiced by the Bar and dynamically pursued by members of the legal fraternity for many years.
“Article 214 of the Constitution of India envisages that there shall be a High Court for each State. With the celebration of the Platinum Jubilee of the Gauhati High Court, it is hoped and prayed that the long-cherished dream of the people of Nagaland for a separate High Court is fulfilled in the days to come,” Sema said.
While the legal fraternity celebrated the occasion, he informed that the Gauhati High Court emerged from the High Court of Assam when on September 9, 1947, the Assam Legislative Assembly adopted a resolution that a High Court be established for the Province of Assam following which the Governor General of India promulgated on March 1, 1948, the Assam High Court Order, 1948, establishing the High Court of Assam with effect from April 5, 1948, for the then Province of Assam.
He narrated that the Kohima Bench of the Gauhati High Court was inaugurated for the first time as a Circuit Bench on December 15, 1972.
Later, the President of India after consultation with the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court, acting through the Governor of Nagaland declared a Permanent Bench with the strength of two permanent station Judges at Kohima.
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The Permanent Bench known as the Kohima Bench was subsequently inaugurated by Justice Sabyasachi Mukherji, the then Chief Justice of India on February 10, 1990.
Senior advocate and president of the High Court Bar Association CT Jamir also echoed the need to separate the High Court in Nagaland. He hoped the state would have its own functional HC before the Gauhati HC turns 100.
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