Cuttack, July 12: Orissa High Court today reserved judgment on two PILs challenging the appointment of retired IAS officer Rabi Narayan Senapati as the State Co-operative Election Commissioner.

The division bench of Justice Madan Mohan Das and Justice Chittaranjan Dash had heard the submissions by all parties and reserved judgment.

Debendranath Sahoo of Cuttack and Biswajit Parida of Jagatsinghpur challenged the appointment on the ground that the Odisha vigilance had registered eight cases against Senapati under the Prevention of Corruption Act and referred to the state government for sanction of prosecution against him.

However, the prosecution proceedings could not be undertaken because the sanction was not given.

Advocate general Ashok Mohanty had argued that mere investigation or suspicion could not form the basis of making an officer ineligible or unsuitable for appointment.

There was no sufficient proof of criminal misconduct or criminal conspiracy and the vigilance cases were based on mere suspicion, which did not make a prima facie case against Senapati.

Appearing on behalf of Senapati, advocate Rajat Rath said charge sheets had been submitted against all the persons, except Senapati, accused in the eight vigilance cases. Hence, he cannot be an accused in the cases.

Earlier, joint secretary of the state co-operation department Biswanath Mallick stated in the affidavit:

“The corruption charges against Senapati were found to be non-sustainable, and the government had decided not to recommend the same to the Centre for sanction of prosecution.”

The petitioners alleged that Senapati had no experience in the co-operative sector and expressed apprehensions that he would not be able to hold free and fair elections to the co-operative societies.

The Odisha government, however, had countered that the apprehension was “baseless and without any substance” as “the honesty, integrity and capability of Senapati cannot be doubted and he was allowed to continue in service up to agriculture production commissioner-cum-development commissioner”.

He was appointed as State Co-operative Election Commissioner “because of his eligibility and suitability”.