History Of Tezpur Bar Association

    The Nucleus of Tezpur Bar Association was formed in the year 1859 when Late Nabin Chandra Bose and Late Ramchandra Sen started practice at Tezpur Court. In the first decade following there was no addition to their strength but in between the years 1869 to 1888 four more pleaders joined them and thus an association was formed with six pleaders in the Bar. The strength of the association increased to 14 when 8 pleaders joined them in between the years 1889 to 1898. The year 1889 itself saw four new entrants including Late Lamboodar Borah who contributed immensely to the Assamese literature by his much valued writings specially about the then prevailing state of affairs in the Assamese society. But this worthy son of Assam and a pioneer member of this Association died in the year 1892. In the next two decades as many as 12 new members joined the Bar. In the year 1914 Late Bodhnath Patangia, a name known to this day throughout Assam for his contribution to the Assamese Society and Assamese Literature joined the Bar but he too did not live long and died on 22-11-1919 making a vacuum of his kind both at the Bar and the society. In the next ten years 11 new members including Annada Kumar Padmapati in 1922, Deshapran Lakshmidhar Sarmah in 1927 joined as members of this Association. Late Lakshmidhar Sarmah besides being a lawyer devoted his life in reforming Assamese Society poignant writings. But his life was also cut short by the cruel providence and he died on 3-5-1934. Twenty six members including B.N. Dey, Sudhir Bagchi, Dulal Ch. Bhattacharyya, Bijoy Ch. Bhagawati, P.K. Sarmah, M.K. Das and K.P. Tripathy joined the Bar in between the years 1929 to 1938. In the next decade 14 members including S.C. Ganguli, K.P. Agarwalla, Manindra Ch. Ganguli, Jogendra Ch. Bhattacharyya, Dugdha Nath Goswami, Bibhuti Bhusan Chakravorty joined this Bar. In the post independence decades there have been gradual increase in enrolment in the Bar as 19, 30, 45, 53 and 61 members joined the Bar in between the years 1949-1958,1959-1968,1969-1978, 1979-1988 respectively. The present strength of the Bar is 300   members.

     The Bar Association buildings consist of one Assam Type building with a hall and a room and one R.C.C. building and situates to the North-Western side of the main Judicial Court building in the same campus.

     Late Lakshmidhar Sarmah, B.C. Bhagawati, K.P. Agarwalla, K.P. Tripathy, M.K. Das, B.D. Sarmah and G.C. Rajbangshi who joined the independence movement suffered various terms of imprisonment and of these members B.C. Bhagawati becanme a minister in the Union Cabinet and K.P. Tripathy, M.K. Das, B.D. Sarmah and G.C. Rajbangshi became ministers in the state cabinet.M.K. Das, G.C. Rajbangshi and N.C. Kath Hazarika also served as speakers in the state assembly. Of the members Chandra Nath Borah, Kamini Kanta Saikia, Ghana Kanta Das, Reshab Borah, Arun Bose, Altaf Ali, S.E. Alam, Dipali Dutta Hazarika, Dhiru Gogoi, B. Mahanta, Paran Phukan, Mina Das, Aruna Devi, V. Chandak joined the judici9al service and Reshab Borah and S.K. Dey rose to the position of District and Sessions Judge and Arun Bose served as Judge of Industrial and Labour Tribunal. In the year 1991 two of the members, namely Iqbal Ahmed Ansari and Kanak Sarmah have been appointed as Addl. District and Sessions Judge. Iqbal Ahmed Ansari is now serving as Hon’ble Justice in the Hon’ble Gauhati High Court, Guwahati. Another member of the Bar , J. Goswami joined in the Assam Civil Service.