Gauhati High Court Bar Association launches hunger strike over proposed shift to North Guwahati

Members of the Gauhati High Court Bar Association (GHCBA) began a three-day hunger strike on January 8 to protest the government’s decision to shift the principal seat of the Gauhati High Court to North Guwahati, escalating opposition to the proposed judicial township at Rangmahal.

The protest, scheduled for six hours each day, started at 10 am in front of the old High Court building in Uzan Bazar. It follows a resolution adopted at an emergent extraordinary general meeting of the Bar Association earlier this week. GHCBA president K N Choudhury is leading the agitation.

The state government plans to build a new High Court complex as part of a judicial township spread across 129 bighas, or over 42.5 acres, at Rangmahal on the northern bank of the Brahmaputra. The Chief Justice of India is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the project on January 11, a ceremony the Bar Association has decided to boycott.

In a statement, the GHCBA said the hunger strike was a “peaceful and democratic expression” of its opposition to the relocation. The Association reiterated that its general body, after deliberation, had reaffirmed its long-standing stand against shifting the principal seat from its current location in central Guwahati, a position earlier reflected in resolutions and a referendum conducted among its members.

The Bar Association has appealed to all advocates to honour the collective decision and abstain from the foundation stone-laying event. Members are set to continue the hunger strike on January 10 and January 12 as well.

The Assam cabinet had approved Rs 479 crore in November last year for the first phase of construction of the judicial township. The government has argued that the relocation is part of a broader plan to develop the Brahmaputra riverfront, which would require the High Court land in Uzan Bazar.

The Gauhati High Court currently functions from a historic building and a modern multi-storey complex constructed a few years ago. The two structures, located on opposite sides of Mahatma Gandhi Road, are connected by an underground tunnel with escalator facilities.

The GHCBA has maintained that shifting the court complex would inconvenience litigants and lawyers and has called for an immediate halt to the project, citing the interests of stakeholders and the public.