CUTTACK: A Single Judge bench of the Orissa High Court has refused to hear two petitions and referred both to the Chief Justice as he felt they were by nature Public Interest Litigations (PILs).
One petition has sought direction for a special audit on alleged lapses in the implementation of Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme by the State Government. It was filed by one Bahlab Charan Sahoo. Alleging non-adherence to guidelines, the petition alleged that of the 51.05 lakh beneficiaries who had availed the scheme, 5.07 lakh were not eligible.
In the process, payment of huge amount of installments under the scheme was made to ghost beneficiaries, the petition alleged seeking the Court’s direction to the Principal Accountant General (Economic & Revenue Sector Audit), Odisha to conduct a special audit.
The second petition has challenged the illegal construction of a Samsana Gruha (funeral house) over Gochar land at Atalanga in Niali of Cuttack district.
Gangadhar Jena and five others of Raniola gram panchayat, including a Naib Sarpanch and a ward member, filed the petition. Instead of using the land earmarked for funeral ground, the authorities were undertaking construction on Gochar (grazing) land, the petitioners alleged seeking the Court’s intervention.Both the petitions were taken up for hearing through video conferencing on Tuesday.
Acting on the two petitions, Justice SK Panigrahi passed identical orders that said since they are PILs masqueraded as writ petition, let the matter be placed before the Chief Justice for assigning it to an appropriate bench.
A petition seeking quashing of the KALIA scheme has also been pending in the High Court for more than a year now.