After years of dilly dallying, a Munsif Magistrate Court is finally opening in Attappady. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the court on January 6 (Saturday) morning through online mode.
Minister for Power K. Krishnankutty will preside over the function to be held at EMS Town Hall, Agali. Dinesh Kumar Singh, High Court Judge in charge of Palakkad judicial district, will unveil a plaque and deliver a special address.
According to Palakkad District and Sessions Judge Ananthakrishna Navada K., the newly set up Munsif Magistrate Court would be “a permanent solution to the difficulty of the people of Attappady to reach the court at Mannarkkad from various remote villages after suffering a lot of difficulties and financial burdens for attending the courts.”
Innumerable hurdles
The court is finally opening at Attappady after circumventing innumerable hurdles posed by people in and outside the legal fraternity ever since it was mooted nearly two decades ago. It took several years for the fulfilment of this court despite it being the number-one priority among the 53 new courts being set up across the State. Lack of an interest among the legal and judicial fraternity and continual resistance from different sections, including politicians and land mafia, were the main reasons for the delay.
Because of the remoteness of Attappady, hardly any judicial officer or lawyer or administrative staff member favoured a posting in the new court. Those who feared the hand of law in Attappady fiercely opposed the court on the hills as justice delivery continued to remain remote for many of the victims of excesses and crimes there.
Realising the necessity of a court in Attappady, the High Court, way back in 2004, had shifted one of the two Munsif Magistrate Courts at Mannarkkad to Attappady. But it did not materialise because of political pressures.
Some of the reasons that those in authority found to delay the setting up of the Attappady court were imbecilic. They had delayed the court for more than two years over a fake letter in the name of a bogus organisation named Attappady Moopan Sabha. The letter, purportedly written by the sabha, had demanded that the court be set up at Pudur instead of Agali, claiming that Pudur would be the central point of Attappady. Similarly, the court was delayed for months in the last phase of its birth for lack of a ramp.
Rough ride
The police stations of Agali, Sholayur and Pudur have been catering to 192 tribal settlements of Attappady. Their cases were being managed by the Munsif Magistrate Court at Mannarkkad. For a person from a place like Varadimala near Sholayur, it would take 89 kilometres of rough ride to reach Mannarkkad. Many tribespeople had either lost or abandoned justice because of this remoteness after being victims of excesses.
With the opening of the new court, litigants from Attappady will no longer have to spend a day or more to reach the court in Mannarkkad. According to Deputy Director of Prosecutions P. Premnath, the new court will take justice to the hills of Attappady. Besides, there will be an enhanced legal watch over Attappady.
