MUMBAI, October 23: The president of the Bar Association of City Civil and Sessions Court has, for the first time in its history, served a legal notice to the principal sessions judge and court registrar for not paying a court employee one month's salary.Sessions court Bar President N Y Gupte on Tuesday served the notice to principal sessions judge A S Aguiar and registrar V B Karandikar for not paying Suhas Shirodkar of the maintenance department his salary for the month of September 1997. The notice read: ``The accounts department has refused to pay Shirodkar the salary for September stating that the salary cannot be paid under oral directions. Withholding salary without issuing reasons for non-payment is illegal, arbitrary and in violation of the principles of natural justice. I hereby request you to direct the accounts department to pay Shirodkar his salary without any further delay. If you fail to do so, my client will be constrained to file the necessary writ petition against you both for appropriate orders and directions.''Plea on dress code dismissedThe additional judge of the designated TADA court, S M Deshmukh, dismissed an application filed by the special public prosecutor, A M Desai, seeking the court to lay strictures on the dress code adopted by the accused. Desai had asked the court to intervene in this matter and prevent the accused from appearing in the court with their faces covered. Defence counsel Harshad Ponda said the application amounted to contempt of court as the court had earlier dismissed a similar application.Congress case to GundewarThe S D Gundewar commission, instituted to inquire into the police firing following the desecration of Dr Ambedkar's statue on July 11 in Mumbai, today accepted the Congress party's statement of case.The Congress statement was filed one day after the deadline. The police will file the statement tomorrow. The commission, which will start its depositions from November 3, has made a list of police witnesses scheduled to be examined. It has appealed to the police commissioner to ensure their presence on the specified dates.
