The Odisha High Court on Tuesday rejected two review petitions filed by two religious organisations seeking a re-look at its January 2011 orders for demolition of illegal places of worship.
With this order, the State Government is now left with no choice but to expedite the ongoing demolition drive so as to reclaim the Government lands under illegal occupation of religious bodies for past several years.
The Division Bench of Justices Madanmohan Das and Indrajit Mohanti did not make any further observation while rejecting the review petitions, thereby sending a clear message to the Government that it has to act now or face the music.
Soon after the High Court's decision, RDC (Central) Arabinda Padhee reviewed the situation with the district officials and gave a clear direction that the demolition drive would be undertaken without break until the last illegal structure is razed.
The RDC is also learnt to have given another direction to the concerned departments to ensure that re-encroachment of evicted areas is
prevented. "Otherwise, we will have no other option than asking the concerned departments to bear the cost of the
eviction of re-encroachment", Padhee said.
The district administration has identified at least 207 such places of worship which have come up illegally creating civic problems. The administration, equipped with the HC order and HC-guided police enforcement, began the demolition act from May 1, and by now; four temples have been grounded despite a massive public outcry.
Conducting the case on behalf of a religious organisation, advocate Bidyadhar Pradhan told reporters that the high court felt that the grounds on which the review petitions were made were not sustainable.
He, however, did not reveal whether the religious organisations would challenge the high court order in the Supreme Court.
The petitions sought review of the HC order on the ground that a related matter is pending before the Supreme Court. It also said the State Government did not bring the facts before the court.
The Government too did not make an attempt in the court seeking a review of the court's earlier order.
Instead, the Government informed the court that no religious organisation has ever made any application to the Government for regularisation of the encroachments.
According to official sources, a district-level committee has been formed to consider the applications of religious organisations which have constructed their structures at "unobjectionable" places for regularisation. The sources added that the committee as of today has not received a single application in this regard.