CUTTACK: With the Election Commission of India (ECI) submitting before the Supreme Court (SC) that it would expeditiously deal with the complaint on alleged discrepancies in Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s poll expenditure, the writ petition filed before the Orissa High Court in this connection was withdrawn on Friday.
The petition, filed by activist Subash Mohapatra, was disposed of as withdrawn by the HC. Earlier, Mohapatra had moved the apex court seeking transfer of the case to Delhi High Court.
During the hearing, the counsel for ECI submitted before the SC that the writ petition before Orissa HC was not the remedy and the petitioner should have waited for the outcome of the pending complaint.
In its order on October 27, the two-judge bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice L Nageswar Rao stated that since the ECI has shown willingness to consider Mohapatra’s complaint, there is nothing further left in the transfer petition for consideration.
The apex court said the writ petition pending in the Orissa HC need not be transferred in view of the ECI submissions and treated it to have been withdrawn.“The learned counsel for the ECI has assured to consider the complaint in accordance with law expeditiously,” its order added. In view of the SC order, Mohapatra’s petition was disposed of as withdrawn by the HC.