Hill town buried under pending cases

Darjeeling, March 25: More than 550 cases are gathering dust in courtrooms here as four of the seven courts in Darjeeling have been without judges for periods ranging from six months to one-and-a-half-years.

To make matters worse, chief judicial magistrate (CJM) S.S. Anand has also been transferred out of Darjeeling last week. Although this post is likely to be filled soon, the fate of the other four courts looks bleak, said lawyers. Appointments of judges are done by Calcutta High Court.

According to a compilation, 560 cases are pending in the four courts (see chart).

The district and sessions’ court does have a judge, but the three additional ones — the first, second and third court — have been vacant for more than a year.

The lawyers said the three additional courts are important for speedy disposal of cases, especially given the huge workload of the district and sessions’ judge, Barun Chandra Pal.

The district and sessions’ court is an appellate forum (where appeals can be made against judgments of lower courts of the entire district). It also has original jurisdiction (where cases are filed directly to this court) regarding motor accident claims, matrimonial suits, guardianship certificates and land acquisition compensation.

Plastic surgery workshop

Darjeeling, March 24: The Indian Society of Facial Plastic and Re-constructive Surgery in collaboration with the Association of Plastic Surgeons of West Bengal will organise a three-day workshop in Darjeeling from March 28.

Plaban Das, the medical director of Planter’s Hospital, where the facial plastic surgeries will be conducted, said a group of 50-odd doctors from India, the US, Belgium and Singapore will operate on the residents of the hill town at a “very nominal rate”.

“These complicated surgeries will be shown live in the conference hall where an interactive session will be arranged for other doctors attending the workshop,” said Das.

The discussions and presentation of papers as part of the workshop will be held at Tourist Lodge.

For the rest of the surgeries, the doctors will take one third of the fees they actually charge. While a normal surgery is expected to cost about Rs 50,000-60,000, for the hill people, it will be conducted within Rs 10,000-15,000.

Das said Ashim K. Roy, the organising secretary of the society, will visit the hospital once in every two or three month and check the patients who were operated on. [The Telegraph]

File scan at hill council offices

Kalimpong, March 24: The Darjeeling district administration bowed to persistent demands of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and allowed representatives of political parties to accompany inspection teams that visited DGHC offices in Kalimpong today to prepare an inventory of all files and official documents housed there.

Flouting government norms, district magistrate Rajesh Pandey gave in to the Morcha demand for the sake of “transparency”. After GNLF chief Subash Ghisingh agreed to step down as caretaker administrator of the council, the Morcha accused certain retired DGHC officers of smuggling out files. Morcha members had created quite a stir earlier this month by seizing files from the residences of some officers.