Gurdaspur, September 19
The contentious issue of moving the judicial complex to the outskirts of the city was given a quiet burial with the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s Building Committee finally deciding to construct the new complex at the present site, which already houses the old judicial complex.

The matter was hanging fire for the past several months and a section of the residents had vehemently objected to the government’s earlier proposed plan to construct the new complex near the Gurdaspur bypass.

The contention was that residents would have to trudge long distances to reach the complex if it came up at the Gurdaspur bypass.

Moreover, the site was also not viable for people from nearby villages, who again would have had to travel long distances to get their work done.

A majority of lawyers, who actually fought tooth and nail to get the new complex constructed at the present site, have hailed the decision of the Building Committee.

The Punjab and Haryana Court’s registrar had written a letter, on July 27, to the principal secretary (home), Punjab government, ruling out the Gurdaspur bypass site and narrowed down the choice to the existing site or the one near the TV relay centre. The Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner and the District Session’s Judge were asked to submit a report on both the sites.

This was after the Building Committee, comprising Justices MM Singh Bedi, TPS Mann and Ajay Tiwari, visited the two sites to take stock of the situation.

The matter has now been finally solved, with members of the Building Committee, after having a meeting with committee Chairman Justice Rajive Bhalla, decided to select the existing site by saying that “the committee is of the unanimous view that the site of the existing court complex is most suitable for the construction of the new judicial complex and the same is approved.”

The President of the Gurdaspur District Bar Association (GDBA), Pushkar Nanda, said it had been a long-pending demand of lawyers to get the new complex constructed at the old site because of its “connectivity and proximity to the bus stand and the railway station.”

Sources reveal that local MLA Gurbhachan Singh Babbehali wanted the new judicial complex to be constructed at the Gurdaspur bypass.

However, he has already gone on record stating that he had no vested interests in the new complex coming up at the Gurdaspur bypass.

Meanwhile, the onus has now shifted to the construction of the District Administrative Complex (DAC), whose foundation stone has already been laid down by former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on May 17, 2006, near the TV relay centre. 

Amritsar, September 19
The aspirations of a policeman, to marry for the second time without giving divorce to his wife, ended in a nightmare here this evening. The police booked 34-year-old Bakshish Singh, a constable with the Punjab Armed Police, stationed at Goindwal Sahib, under section 494 of the IPC after his wife Gurinder Kaur (24) approached the Ram Bagh police.

Bakshish and Gurinder had two sons aged 3 and 4 years.

According to information, the PAP constable was nabbed by the family members of Gurinder from the Ram Bagh area when he was heading towards a gurdwara in Shekhupura area for marriage with an 18-year-old girl.

Gurinder claimed that her husband had been a regular drinker and often engaged in domestic violence. “He often used to beat me up on one pretext or another. I have already registered a case with the police, proceedings for which are underway in courts at Tarn Taran,” she complained.

“Yesterday, when he did not appear in the court, we started enquiring about him. Today, a colleague of his informed us that Bakshish was planning to marry a girl, belonging to a very poor family of Dhathikaran village near Amritsar. Then my brothers located him near the Ram Bagh area and took him to a police station,” she added.

Inspector Dinesh Singh, SHO of Ram Bagh police station, said Bakshish Singh had been taken into custody.