PURI: The petition filed by Government praying for a stay on the order on removal of ‘samadhi’ of Biju Patnaik from Swargadwar was rejected by Civil Judge (Junior division) S Acharya on Thursday. The Judge rejected the petition on the ground that the original suit has been disposed of.
The court, though, accepted another petition praying for fresh hearing of the case on the plea that the opposite party - the State Government represented by Puri Collector Arvind Agarwal - was not given an opportunity for placing its side of the case. On December 27, the court had ordered Puri Collector and the civic body to remove the ‘samadhi’ from Swargadwar within three months failing which, it will initiate the process of law.
After the last rites of Biju Patnaik at the Swargadwar here, a ‘samadhi’ was constructed by the civic body covering a major portion of the ghat. Objecting to construction, Ramesh Prasad Sinha, Bikash Kumar Satpathy and two other lawyers filed a case before the Civil Judge. They pointed out that area of the Swargadwar ghat has been reduced to only 0.46 decimals after construction of the ‘samadhi’.