Orissa High Court

Cuttack, June 19: All eyes are on Orissa High Court as it reopens after summer vacation tomorrow for the cases related to power tariff hike, development of minor ports, revised limit of Calcutta port and Posco’s mega steel plant project.

Besides, it is expected to deliver some verdicts, which it had kept reserved because of the necessity of CBI probes into the multi-crore mining scam and the dispute over environmental clearance to Vedanta Aluminum Limited (VAL).

The high court had imposed restrictions on the collection of the revised tariff from the consumers by way of an interim stay order on May 31. But it had not completed adjudication on the three petitions challenging the power tariff hike. It had fixed June 20 for further hearing on the case while directing Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission on May 9 to dispose of by then the state government’s review petition on the revised power tariff for domestic consumers.

The vacation court had, on May 30, issued an interim stay order on the signing of any MoUs for development of minor ports while fixing June 21 for hearing the PIL challenging the Orissa government’s decision to develop minor ports by involving private developers without going through an open bidding process. The state government had planned to develop 12 minor ports by private operators.

The high court had fixed June 21 for hearing the PIL on the revised limit of the Calcutta port while directing the secretary, department of shipping, and the Calcutta Port Trust on May 5 not take any hurried decision in the matter.

While the intervention petitions filed by Calcutta Port Trust and Dhamra port had been allowed, the Centre and the Calcutta Port Trust were issued notices to file their responses.

The petition filed by six residents of Govindpur-Dhinkia-Nuagaon seeking quashing of the land acquisition proceedings for the Posco steel plant project along with a plea for an interim stay order is expected to be listed for hearing as the high court reopens tomorrow. The vacation court had, on May 26, directed the petitioners to submit their land ownership details in the form of record of rights (RORs) by June 3.

While the petitioners had complied with the court order and counter affidavits were filed by the state government and Posco India Pvt Ltd, the case had since not been taken up for hearing. The six villagers had also filed a separate petition challenging the forest clearance granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) for the Posco project. The division bench of Chief Justice V. Gopal Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra had, on April 18, reserved judgment on six PILs seeking a CBI probe into the alleging inadequacies and limitations of the state vigilance police (SVP).

The same division bench had, on February 28, reserved a judgment on the petition filed by Vedanta Aluminum Limited (VAL) challenging the October 20, 2010, MoEF order halting expansion plans of it’s alumina refinery and captive power plant at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district.

The single-judge bench of Justice I. Mohanty had, on March 9, reserved judgment on the validity of criminal proceedings against Subhashree Panda alias Mili Panda, wife of top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda after issuing an interim stay order on the trial proceedings and calling for the records from the trial court.