CUTTACK: The state government has claimed that there is no bar against constitution of new districts by it if done in consultation with the Orissa High Court.
Additional secretary, department of Revenue and Disaster Management Sashadhar Nayak made the claim on Friday in a counter affidavit to the PIL seeking intervention against creation of new districts allegedly without following any guidelines or principles.
The state government is conferred with the power under Clause (b) of Section 3 Clause (b) of Orissa Revenue Administration (Units) Act, 1963 and Section 7 sub section (2) and (3) of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, Nayak stated.
However, the division bench of Acting Chief Justice BR Sarangi and Justice MS Raman extended the order by which it had restrained the state government from passing any final order on creation of new districts without taking the court’s permission on December 22, 2023.
The PIL was filed after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced to accord district status to Padampur. President of Rairangpur Bar Association Akshaya Kumar Mohanty filed the petition.
After the state government filed the counter affidavit of 300 pages on Friday petitioner counsel SK Dash sought time to go through it and file rejoinder affidavit. On his request, the bench said: “List this matter after four weeks. Interim order passed earlier shall continue till the next date.”
In the counter affidavit, Nayak stated that the state government intends to create the Padampur district by carving out Padampur sub-division from the existing Bargarh district. “In this regard, a 11-member high power committee under the chairmanship of Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Northern Division) had visited Padampur in order to ascertain suitable places for the new collectorate office and associated offices on December 4, 2023,” he stated.
In the meanwhile, the state government has received representations for creation of 28 new districts. The representation for creation of Rairangpur district by the petitioner is one of them, the counter affidavit said. The petition has sought direction to the state government Rairangpur as a new district taking Bamanghati (commonly known as Rairangpur) and Panchapid (commonly known as Karanjia) sub-divisions under its fold.
The petition also expected the court to direct the state government to constitute a high-level committee under the chairmanship of a retired judge in order to examine the demands for creation of new districts in Odisha and take decision on formation of new districts pursuant to the report of the committee so constituted.