‘Justice delayed, many cases still pending in High Court’

KOLKATA: Mayor Firhad Hakim, on Friday, said that justice is being delayed as several cases, including the illegal occupation of vested lands and properties under the civic body continue to remain pending at the Calcutta High Court.

Addressing reporters at the KMC headquarters, he said “With all due respect for the justice system, I have to say that in many cases justice is crying in the darkness. Justice is being delayed. Only cases that draw the attention of the Press are being dealt with in an expeditious manner. On the contrary, the cases where there is no scope of publicity are getting delayed.”

Citing an example of cases which according to him are being delayed, Hakim said, “Several lands of KMC are under illegal occupation. We have been fighting such cases for years. After years of court battles, we were finally able to get rid of illegal occupation of the Roxy building. There are many cases which have public interest but are pending in the Calcutta High Court for years. These cases are not coming up for hearing. Many poor people whose lands have been illegally occupied are not getting justice. This is not good.”

“I am not criticising but if judges become overambitious then it is the judgement that gets compromised. To us, judges are next to god. Who else should we go to ask for justice?” he questioned.

Hakim highlighted, “There are many vested lands of KMC that are under illegal occupation. About 100 cases like that are pending. One such is Futnani Chambers. There are also cases stuck in the court where our vested lands have also been sold off. These are people’s property and not private ones.”