Nainital HC
Public transport and hotel tariffs in Rudrapur “are meagre” compared to Nainital, he said, adding a decision to shift the court house needs to be taken now. “A decision will have to be taken now because it will take at least 10 years to build new infrastructure for the high court in a new spot,” Maharaj said.
“The influx of tourists (to Nainital) and the traffic volume would continue to mount,” the minister added.
The tourism minister said both the residents of Nainital and visiting tourists favour shifting the high court elsewhere. He claimed that a large number of residents, hoteliers and restaurateurs from the hill station had in recent weeks approached him in this connection.
“They complained that there was hardly any parking place left in the hill station owing to the traffic congestion in summers,” Maharaj claimed, adding they fear the traffic situation may lead to people avoiding the hill station altogether, adversely impacting livelihoods of people.
“A lady who was on a visit to Nainital shared with me that she would never visit again as she had to walk two miles with luggage owing to the traffic congestion,” Maharaj claimed. “Locals are also upset that it takes tourists five-and-a-half hours to reach Nainital from Haldwani, a distance of just 35 kms.”
The then BJP governments ruling both at the Centre and in Uttarakhand had decided to set up a high court in Kumaon following the formation of Uttarakhand in 2000. They had chosen Dehradun in Garhwal as the state’s provisional capital in a bid to strike a regional balance, political observers said. apologise. The Congress on the other hand said it was a “sad letter day” in India’s judicial history, adding that the verdict had left many questions unanswered. “The issue of criminality or lack of it can only be decided through an investigation. We reiterate our demand for an independent and fair probe into Judge Loya’s death,” its spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said.
“It is that innate commitment that makes us place all the apprehensions expressed so far by the family members of Judge Loya, the Bar, jurists, judges, media and people at large, in public domain, once again,” he said.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) termed the judgement ‘unfortunate’. “The circumstances of Judge Loya’s death raises several questions,” it said.
In March, the Supreme Court bench had reserved judgment on the pleas for an independent probe into Loya’s death. The Maharashtra government, opposing the petitions, argued that all the pleas were motivated and aimed at targeting “one individual” in the guise of upholding the rule of law.
Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a smalltime criminal, was allegedly gunned down by a team of policemen from Gujarat and Rajasthan in November 2005. The case includes the alleged killing of his wife Kausar Bi and their associate Tulsiram Prajapati.