TNI Bureau: Orissa High Court has put an interim stay on the announcement of new districts in Odisha.

As per the interim stay order, the State government cannot issue any notification for announcing new district without the permission of the Court.

The two member Orissa High Court bench comprising acting Chief Justice of the Court, Justice Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi and Justice MS Raman conducted a hearing of the PIL, filed by Rairangpur Bar Association president and Rairangpur district working committee convenor Akshay Kumar Mohanty, said that Odisha Government can take decision to make a new district but cannot issue the official notification without the permission of the court.

Mohanty had said that without taking the economic situation, population, jurisdiction of the area and backward classes into consideration, the Odisha government has decided to announce new district for its political benefits.

While conducting a hearing of the case, the Court came to know that government has not issued any special guidelines to be followed while announcing a new district.

This apart, the court came to know that the government did not have any data regarding the list of places that will be declared as districts in near future which is why the Orissa High Court issued the interim stay order.

The court’s direction is now considered as a major blow for for the people of Padmapur subdivision in Bargarh district who are demanding district status for Padmapur.

In the PIL it was said that the state government is considering to announce Padmapur as the new districts while the people of Rairangpur have been demanding it for longer period of time than the former.

The court scheduled the next hearing of the case two weeks after the winter holidays.