Gayatri Soren v. State Of Odisha
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK
W.P.(C) No.15026 of 2022 Gayatri Soren ....
Petitioner M/s. P.K. Ray, Advocate and associates -versusState of Odisha and others ....
Opposite Parties Mr. Ishwar Mohanty, Additional Standing Counsel
CORAM:
THE CHIEF JUSTICE JUSTICE R.K. PATTANAIK
ORDER
11.08.2022 Order No.
02.
1. The only apprehension expressed by the Petitioner at this stage in the present petition questioning an order dated 27th May 2022 of the Lokayukta, Odisha in LY Case No.122 of 2021 is that there are certain observations in the said order which may prejudice the Petitioner as they may amount to prejudging the issue. In particular, attention of the Court is drawn to the following portion of the impugned order which reads as under:
"Under the above circumstances and fact situation, the possibility of involvement of the other officers of Hatadihi Tahasil (Ms. Soren, Ex-Tahasildar and Srikanta Jena, Nazir specifically) in addition to Sri Abhimanyu Bhuyan cannot be ruled out and this requires investigation. Also, such practice of manipulating of money receipts for wrongful gain in similar cases by the Tahasil officials cannot be ruled out."
2. Learned counsel appearing for the Petitioner draws attention to the view of the competent authority, which has been extracted in
the impugned order, which states that the allegations against the present Petitioner "are baseless and false as found from the report of the ADM, Keonjhar".
3. Having considered the impugned order in light of the submissions of learned counsel appearing for the Petitioner, the Court is of the view that the observations in the impugned order can at best be considered as tentative and prima facie and not conclusive in nature. In fact, they only explain the circumstances under which the Lokayukta has ordered an investigation.
4. Consequently, the Court is not persuaded at this stage to interfere. The writ petition is accordingly dismissed. (Dr. S. Muralidhar) Chief Justice (R.K. Pattanaik) Judge S.K. Guin