Cuttack, April 18: Orissa High Court today reserved judgment on the six PILs seeking CBI probe and another by a special investigating team (SIT) on the multi-crore mining scam.

The two-judge bench of Chief Justice V. Gopal Gowda reserved judgment after hearing the arguments of former law minister Narsingh Mishra on behalf of Rini Rath, one of the PIL petitioners and the counter arguments of advocate-general Ashok Mohanty.

Mishra pressed for a CBI probe alleging inadequacies and limitations of the state vigilance police (SVP) because influential persons having connection with persons in the government were involved in the scam. Mohanty, however, reiterated that there was no necessity to have the CBI investigate the case since the SVP was fully competent.

The alleged scam involving illegal mining and smuggling of manganese from mines in Keonjhar that had not been leased out, had rocked the Navin Patnaik-led BJD government in the state forcing it to order an inquiry by the state vigilance in July 2009.

Three PILs were subsequently filed between August and October 2009 seeking a CBI probe into the scam. Notices were issued and the state government submitted counter affidavits. But the PILs languished virtually without any hearing for nearly a year till advocate Durga Charan Mohanty, counsel for one of the petitioners pointed out that the case warrants a verdict in view the sensitivity of the issue that was raised in the PIL. Taking note of it, the high court issued orders for listing of the case and hearing resumed in November 2010 along with three more PILs.

One Prashanta Das had sought direction to probe the alleged mining scam by constituting a “special investigating team” and monitor the investigation.

The high court also took up for analogous hearing environmental activist Biswajit Mohanty’s intervention petition in Rini Rath’s PIL and another PIL which was filed on March 15 by former MLA Uma Ballav Rath and Talcher-based journalist Purna Chandra Sahoo.

During the course of adjudication, CBI had expressed willingness to probe the mining scam. “We are ready to offer our services if the court recommends a probe by the agency into the alleged cases of illegal mining,” CBI had said in an affidavit. The central investigating agency, however, expected “infrastructure, logistics and manpower support from the state government”.