Cuttack, Jan. 22: Controversy over the civic body's decision to reject the operating licence for five of the six kalyan mandaps at Barabati Stadium has taken a new turn after Orissa High Court ordered status quo on the issue.

The high court order comes as a blow to the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC), which had planned to prohibit functioning of these kalyan mandaps as they did not fulfil its eligibility criteria. As the custodian of Barabati Stadium, the Odisha Olympic Association had developed six banquet halls and applied for an operating licence.

However,"The purpose of leasing out the land in favour of Odisha Olympic Associaton is not meant for using the institution for the purpose of kalyan mandap. Hence, your request for granting licence is rejected and are requested not to use them for the purpose of kalyan mandaps," the corporation said in its rejection order.

The state government had leased out 20.808 acres to the association for the stadium in 1949. The association is the apex body for state and district associations for different sports, including football, hockey, table tennis and basketball.<>"We were renting out kalyan mandaps over the leasehold land to augment resources to maintain the stadium like other stadiums in Odisha and other states such as the Yuvabharati Stadium in Calcutta," association general secretary Md Anwar Alam said.

After the CMC rejected the applications, the association had sought high court intervention. "After preliminary hearing, the division bench of Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi on Friday granted interim relief by ordering maintenance of status quo," said its counsel Dayananda Mohapatra. Alam said: "We were in a quandary as many people had deposited money to book the five kalyan mandaps."

"The order has come as a relief as it cleared uncertainty over our marriage function, which is scheduled for January 25," said Saumendra Mishra, who had booked the Horse Gate banquet hall months back. Additional commissioner Suman Behera said: "After field inspection, we granted operating licences to 50 kalyan mandaps out of the 113 applications received."

In case of Barabati Stadium, only Barabati Palace has been granted a licence as it had an approved building plan for the kalyan mandap.

Similarly, except for the sought after Windsor Palace venue, the CMC rejected 12 of the 13 applications in the satellite township Markatnagar.

Marriage halls created traffic chaos by increasing congestion in roads in different parts of the city. The approach roads to most kalyan mandaps used for weddings were not suitable for parking vehicles.