State sent proposal for appointing HC chief justice, judges

Shillong, August 1: To enable the state for making the high court functional, the Meghalaya government submitted proposal for appointment of four judges including a chief justice to the union ministry of law.

So far Meghalaya only has a Shillong bench of the Guwahati high court, but with  parliament passing the “The North Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) and other related law (amendment) act, 2012” the state will now have its own high court.

Meghalaya deputy chief minister BM Lanong, who is also holding the law portfolio, said, “We have proposed four judges to the Ministry. Out of the four, a senior most judge will be appointed as the chief justice of the Meghalaya High Court.”

Lanong informed that the state government is already on the job for meeting the requirements for setting up its own high court. With regard to the appointment of judges, he said the state government is keen to appoint indigenous local advocates who are senior and qualified.

Lanong informed that an amount of Rs 5 crores had been sanctioned by the government for setting up its own high court, but the amount might go up to meet the requirements including the salaries of the staffs.

Lanong felt that with its own high court it will be a blessing to the people of Meghalaya as they don’t need to go to the principal bench at Guahati for hearing of their cases”. He also  said having its own high court will also means speeding up the process of disposing off pending as well as ongoing cases. –By Our Reporter