CUTTACK: The State government’s power to formulate rules for awards of Odisha Sahitya Akademi (OSA) has come under the scrutiny of the Orissa High Court. Acting on a petition filed in the HC challenging it, the single judge bench of Justice Biswanath Rath on Friday issued an interim stay order on implementation of the ‘Odisha Sahitya Akademi Puraskar Niyamabali’ which a deputy secretary in department of Odia Language, Literature and Culture had communicated to the OSA secretary on May 2, 2022.
The interim stay order shall remain effective till the matter is taken up for next hearing after four weeks. The court expected that the State government will file a counter affidavit by then. Dr Nrusingha Charan Sarangi (67), executive board member of OSA and chairman of the subcommittee to frame rules for Odisha Sahitya Akademi awards filed the petition. Advocate Ramakanta Sarangi argued on the petitioner’s behalf.
The petition centred round the contention that rules communicated to the OSA secretary for implementation exemplified ‘abuse of power and authoritarian attitude of the State government’ as it was formulated ‘without jurisdiction and violated various rules and constitution of the OSA’.
Moreover, the communication was illegal as it was issued by suppressing the material fact that OSA had already sent to the government amended rules for approval on August 16, 2021. While seeking quashing of the May 2 communication, the petition sought the court’s direction to the State authorities to approve the amended rules for ‘Odisha Sahitya Akademi Puraskar’ as it has the approval of the general council and executive board of OSA.