Cuttack, April 24: Orissa High Court has extended the status quo order on East Coast Railway's eviction notice to businessman at Malgodown here till June 17.

More than 800 traders, including wholesalers and sub-wholesalers, have been conducting business in the 90-year-old Malgodown. It is the largest wholesale market for essential commodities in the state and spread over 25 acres, 80 per cent of which belongs to the railways.

The court extended the interim reprieve for the traders after not receiving a reply from East Coast Railway (ECoR) on the petitions challenging the eviction notice.

The eviction notices were served on traders citing urgent requirement of land by the railways administration "for its own developmental work in public interest".

Dipak Kumar Agarwal and other traders had challenged the notice and sought the court's intervention for alternative land with adequate facilities for shifting the entire market. On March 19, the court had directed the divisional manager of ECoR to file a response within two weeks and ordered status quo in the interim. But when the petitions came up for hearing on Thursday, the ECoR sought two more weeks through its counsel to file a reply.

"The single judge bench of Justice A.K. Rath allowed two more weeks to ECoR to file the reply, but posted the matter to be heard after the summer vacation and extended the status quo order till then," petitioners' counsel Satyaranjan Pati said today.

The summer vacation of the high court will start from May 18. The court will reopen on June 17.

The railway authorities had been issuing trade licences to businessmen at Malgodown since 1925. In February, the railways had issued ultimatum to the traders to vacate the land by March 31 stating that there would be no further renewal of licences from 2015-16.

The petitioners have contended that the sudden eviction without alternative arrangement for relocation would seriously hit the chain of trade in essential commodities right to the village retail traders, who are dependent on Malgodown.<>

Besides, it is the lifeline for more than 25,000 traders, workers, labourers and transporters. Business worth around Rs 100 crore takes place at Malgodown every day

The British government had set up the Malgodown in Cuttack after the great famine of 1866 as a precautionary measure to stock food grains with an inland dock facility connecting it to the Bay of Bengal via Taladanda canal.Mishra, an Odisha cadre IPS officer of the 1977 batch, is now the director-general of Central Reserve Police Force. While granting one week, Justice Parija had made clear that no further time would be granted.

The FIR was registered against him on September 20 last year for alleged undue favours shown to various steel and cement suppliers during his tenure as chairman-cum-managing director of the Odisha Police Housing and Welfare Corporation between 2006-07 and 2009-10.

The state vigilance had alleged that undue favours were shown by way of making 100 per cent advance payments of Rs 57.86 crore prior to the supply of cement and steel within the stipulated period.

However, senior advocate Sanjit Mohanty, who appeared on Mishra's behalf, said the corruption case had "no basic facts" and the audit reports relied on were "inconsistent and contradictory".

Mohanty had further argued that the state vigilance had in its affidavit admitted that making payments in advance prior to supply of cement and steel was in practice both before and subsequent to Mishra's tenure.

The affidavits also indicated that the corporation had made more profit due to the centralised purchase policy Mishra adopted. While around 200 projects were under way, the purchase price paid in advance against purchase orders for cement and steel was less than the market price, Mohanty said.

The high court, on October 13 last year, had issued an interim order restraining the state vigilance from taking any coercive action on the basis of the FIR and the related case pending in the court of special judge, vigilance, Bhubaneswar.