In a peculiar step to stage their protest against the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Heritage Corridor Project, members of the Puri Bar Association on Monday polished shoes sitting on footpath and collected money to pay a fine imposed on petitioner Ardhendu Das and others.
Notably, a two-judge bench of the SC while adjudicating the matter on last Friday had dismissed the pleas and imposed Rs 1 lakh fine each on the appellants, terming their petitions as ‘frivolous’ and for wasting the time of the court. The court had allowed the project works to be taken forward in the public interest.
The lawyers requested people to pay just Re 1 in lieu of polishing their shoes. After collecting Rs 1 lakh, they will hand over the sum to petitioner Das.
Leading the boot-polish campaign, lawyer Priayadarshan Patnaik said they would also beg people moving from door to door across the State to compensate the petitioners imposed with the penalty by the SC.
Lawyer Biswajit Sahu said the petitioner’s plea on the Parikrama Project can never be a “personal” interest litigation as viewed by the SC.
Das, chief editor of an Odia TV channel, besides one Sumanta Kumar Ghadai had separately moved the apex court against the Orissa High Court’s May 9 order on the heritage project works.