Orissa HC reserves verdict for CBI probe

The Orissa High Court (HC) on Monday reserved its order after completion of hearing of a host of Public Interest Litigations (PILs), demanding a CBI probe into the multi million crore mining scam in the state.

At least seven PILs were filed in the Orissa HC of which only four were taken for adjudication by the court.

A division bench of Chief Justice V Gopal Gouda and Justice B N Mohapatra, was hearing the PILs for the last four months.

The Orissa government, which has been vehemently opposing the CBI probe into the mining scam, had stated that it has already instituted a Vigilance probe into the matter and the Vigilance has been doing a commendable job. On the other hand, the petitioners had argued that the State Vigilance was ill equipped to conduct the probe into the mining scam.

Earlier, the state government had questioned the validity of PILs filed in the Orissa HC.

On January 11 this year, Mukul Rohtogi, former additional solicitor general and senior lawyer of Supreme Court, appearing on behalf of the state government in the Orissa HC, had placed a 126-page counter affidavit, criticizing the grounds on which the PILs were filed, stating that there are no specific charges leveled against any individual or organization in the PILs necessitating CBI probe into the scam.

Questioning the merit of the PILs, the state government-appointed lawyer had said that the points raised in the petitions were “vague” and “general”, basing on newspaper reports and suggested that instead of CBI probe, the ongoing vigilance enquiry into the illegal mining in the state could be monitored by the High Court on a regular basis. The mining scam had snowballed into a major controversy in the state with the Opposition political parties mounting pressure on the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for a CBI probe into the scam.