Cuttack: The state government on Monday extended the term of the Justice Madan Mohan Das Commission by another six months.

When constituted on July 9, 2013, Justice R.K. Patra, a retired judge of Orissa high court, was appointed as head of the single-member judicial commission.

The commission was to submit a report within three months on individuals and entities who have indulged in unauthorised collection of public deposits in the state and involvement of influential persons, bureaucrats and other sections of the society in protecting or promoting such illegal activities.

However, the term has since been extended on three months interval.

Justice Madan Mohan Das, another retired high court judge, took charge of the commission on February 5, 2015, following the death of Justice R.K. Patra on January 28, 2015.

After Justice Das took charge he was assigned the additional job "to identify the bona fide investors affected by transactions of fraudulent financial establishments/companies and to suggest the modality of payment of compensation, the names of small investors eligible for compensation and the amount of compensation payable from the corpus fund or otherwise".

The term of the commission was last extended on November 4, 2017 till February 4. "The state government has this time extended the tenure by six months with effect from February 5," commission secretary Devraj Rout told The Telegraph on Monday.

The state home department issued the notification to this effect on Saturday.

The Justice Madan Mohan Das Commission, which has been identifying small investors duped by dubious financial companies, has so far submitted four interim reports to the state government to decide on the entitlement of 1,16,504 investors eligible for compensation.

The commission has been identifying small investors who had deposited Rs 10,000 or less from among the 8.17 lakh affidavits received by it.

Official sources said scrutiny of 5.93 lakh affidavits had been completed in five phases so far and the four interim reports on eligible small investors were submitted from 3.41 lakh affidavits.

The panel had submitted its first interim report on May 25, 2016, for payment of compensation to 8,632 small investors. The second interim report was submitted on February 3 last year for payment of compensation to 10,790 small investors. The names of 41,519 small investors were recommended in the third interim report on July 25 last year.

However, the state government had not acted on them till date, official sources said.