CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Wednesday adjourned to after two weeks proceedings on the PIL for the tabling of Justice Raghubir Das Commission’s report in the Assembly after the state government failed to file an affidavit on the status of the report.
The PIL has failed to make any progress for nearly nine months now as the state government has not complied with the court’s order to file the status report on April 25, 2023.
The government had constituted the judicial commission under the Commissions of Inquiry Act 1952 on June 6, 2018, two months after the keys were found to be missing during a bid to inspect the Ratna Bhandar of Jagannath temple in Puri. Justice Das submitted his inquiry report to the state government on November 29, 2018. Around `22.27 lakh was reportedly spent on the probe exercise.
Dilip Kumar Baral, a resident of Puri, had filed the PIL seeking intervention against the state government for not making public the report even after over five years. Earlier, the court had granted two more months’ time to submit the report on July 10. Then the state government was granted one week time on December 1 and 15. But when the petition was taken up on Wednesday, the state counsel assured the court to submit an affidavit on the status of the report within the next two to three days. Petitioner counsel Anup Kumar Mohapatra strongly opposed the plea.
However, allowing the plea, the division bench of Acting Chief Justice BR Sarangi and Justice MS Raman deferred hearing on the matter to after two weeks, while granting time till then for submission of the affidavit by the state government. The PIL hinged on the contention that Section 3 (4) of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 prescribed tabling of the report of a commission constituted under the Act in the state Assembly within six months of submission to the government together with a memorandum of action taken thereon.
“Report of Commissions of Inquiry should not be allowed to gather dust for years together as it reflects adversely on the utility of such commissions and affects the credibility of the entire exercise,” the petition also contends.