Lawyers’ boycott of court proceedings continues

BOMDILA, Mar 5: The boycott of court proceedings by the Bomdila Bar Association (BBA) over “non-clearance of outstanding public prosecutor and state defence bills” continues with about 18 advocates remaining absent from court proceedings as of Tuesday.
The BBA comprises advocates of the additional district and sessions court here in West Kameng district, covering East Kameng, West Kameng and Tawang districts.
The BBA had earlier approached the state government, seeking early disbursement of long pending bills of the public prosecutors.
“Despite running from pillar to post for the bills, the departments concerned have only cleared 30 percent of the outstanding bills.
Now the total outstanding bills, including earlier unpaid bills, is above Rs 40 lakhs and immediate appointment of regular public prosecutor for a period of seven days, with effect from 22 February to 4 March, 2019, but the authority concerned has not fulfilled our abovementioned demands,” advocate Rinchin Khandu said, adding that the bar members will continue to remain absent from court proceedings until their demands are fulfilled.
BBA president Khamu Desisaw expressed similar sentiments, saying the association had earlier boycotted the court proceedings for a week, from 22 February, “but the authority concerned has not fulfilled our demands.”
He said the fresh ban on the proceedings will also be of a week’s time, starting 5 March.