Cuttack, Jan. 3: The New Year is expected to see early verdicts by Orissa High Court on several cases. While some of them are being heard, judgment has been reserved in some others. The court will have its first sitting on Monday after the winter vacation.

One of the cases is former director-general of police Prakash Mishra's plea challenging the case registered against him by the state vigilance under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Mishra, director-general of the Central Industrial Security Force, has been accused of showing undue favours to cement and steel suppliers during his tenure as chairman-cum-managing director of the Odisha State Police Housing Welfare Corporation.

Another PIL is seeking intervention against alleged illegal occupation of forestland by Rajya Sabha MP Kalpataru Das's wife Pratima Das. She has been accused of illegally occupying over seven acres of forestland under Dharmasala tehshil in the name of one Gokernaswar Charitable Trust and setting up an industrial training institute on it.

The court's verdict on the legality of the state administrative tribunal's order, quashing the Odisha Civil Service (Preliminary) Examination - 2011 results, is much awaited.

Acting on Odisha Public Service Commission's petition, the court had issued a stay on the SAT ruling and allowed it to go ahead with the OCS (Main) Exam-2011, but specified that the OPSC would not proceed with the evaluation of answer scripts till further orders.

Adjudicating on five petitions, the high court had allowed Ravenshaw University to continue with the selection process for 140 posts, but restrained it from taking a final decision. Consequently, though the selection process had completed the interviews, the varsity has not declared the results. The verdict on the petitions challenging the advertisement issued by the university inviting applications for 140 professors, readers and lecturers is awaited.

The court had taken up for hearing for the first time a PIL on irregularities regarding allotment of plots and houses under the discretionary quota. It had registered the PIL on the basis of a letter petition seeking a CBI probe on corruption in dealing with government land by the general administration department, development authorities and other public bodies. The state government submitted the report of the task force it had formed to examine the irregularities.

Former MP Kharavela Swain had sought quashing of the creation of a corpus fund of Rs 300 crore by the state government for the purpose of distribution among investors duped by unauthorised deposit collection companies.

Cuttack-based legal advocacy group Legal Support and Social Action had sought an intervention for routing of more trains through the city with the train terminal in Cuttack instead of Bhubaneswar.

Besides, the high court had taken up for hearing a petition seeking intervention for construction of the Khurda-Balangir railway line within a specified period. Filed in December 2008, the petition had languished till July last year.

The 289-km railway project, which would connect coastal Odisha with the western districts, has remained an important political issue with successive state governments often accusing the Centre of neglecting it.

Though conceived in 1940s, the project was first announced only in 1994-95.