Cuttack, Aug. 29: The state government has been caught on the wrong foot for implementing an Orissa High Court single-judge bench order six months after a division bench had quashed it.
The tourism and culture department had renamed the Tarabalo Hot Spring, situated in Nayagarh district and largest of the four in the state, as Nilakandar on February 25.
The notification had cited a February 5, 2016, high court order issued by a single-judge bench "to rename the Tarabalo Hot Spring as per some historical name of the state".
However, the state government did not take into consideration a subsequent high court order while renaming the hot spring. A division bench of the high court had set aside the single-judge bench order on July 4, 2016, "for having passed without jurisdiction".
Spread over 15 acres, the hot spring is located adjacent to the Ketakiswari temple near the Tarabalo village. In 1994, the state government declared Tarabalo as a tourist resort.
Therefore, the hot spring found a place in the tourist map and among the 193 identified attractions in Odisha.
The lapse has come to light with Dhaneswar Pradhan, 67, and 29 other residents of Tarabalo village moving a public interest litigation in the high court for quashing the tourism department's notification that had renamed the hot spring.
The petitioners have sought the court's direction for a probe by a competent authority and appropriate action against the erring officials responsible for the "illegal action" of issuing the notification.
The PIL came up in the court on August 22. After a preliminary hearing, the division bench of Justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi posted the matter for hearing six weeks later along with the reply of the state government.
The court issued notices to the principal secretary of the tourism and culture department and tehsildar of Khandapara to file their affidavits within one month.
Geological Survey of India records say the hot springs are actually located in the middle of cultivated land and cover an area of 0.01sqkm near Tarabalo village. There are two hot springs 20 metres apart in the form of small pools. Tarabalo also finds a place in the list of hot springs in the world.
The issue of the hot spring had reached the high court when residents of the adjacent village of Nilakanthaprasad had filed a PIL seeking direction to rectify the error. They wanted it to be named Nilakanthaprasad Hot Spring in 2000, six years after the tourism and culture department had declared Tarabalo a health resort and tourist spot.
Acting on it, the single judge bench of Justice Sanju Panda had directed the state government to describe the Tarabalo Hot Spring "as per some historical name of the state" on February 5, 2016.
But when villagers of Tarabalo filed an appeal petition, the division bench of Justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi set aside the order of Justice Sanju Panda on grounds of jurisdiction. As the petition of villagers of Nilakanthaprasad was in the nature of a PIL, it ought to have been heard by a division bench.
Consequently, when it was placed before a division bench, it was disposed of on October 3, 2016, giving liberty to the petitioners to file a fresh petition.
Official records indicate that an additional district magistrate (Nayagarh) issued a letter to the tourism and culture department on January 30, 2017, on renaming of Tarabalo Hot Spring as Nilakandar Hot Spring.
The tourism and culture department issued a notification to that effect on February 25 this year.
