Cuttack: Yesterday on 9th March, the honourable Supreme Court of India has debarred the Secretary- Asirbad Behera of Odisha Olympic Association- OOA from attending the office till the next hearing of the Court.
The decision was taken by the Apex Court’s division bench of Justice- Dipak Misra and Justice- P. C. Pant in the petition where the allegation of encroachment of Government land by the OOA was made.
The Sectretary to OAA- Behera was ordered by the Court not to get involve in anyway in the functioning of the OAA till next hearing of the case. The order of restriction is made for the temporary period, i.e. till the next date. It was seen that the Advocate- Dayanand Mohapatra appearing for the Odisha Olympic Association stated that they are ready to obey the orders of the Court.
Also, in the result of the Court’s decision, it was seen that the Behera has handed over the official charge in favour of the OOA’s Joint Secretary- Rabindra Parida yesterday. And he commented that being the law abiding citizen, he finds his duty to follow the directions of the Court and as such, now he will stay away from affairs of OOA till the further directions of the Court come. Behera also sought to maintain while in his talk to reporters, that he done nothing “wrong” so he has “nothing to hid”. He was serving as the Secretary to the OOA since 1988.
It was OOA which has challenged by way of petition, the order of the Orissa High Court which was made long back in the year 2014, where the Court had ordered for seizure of OOA’s properties constructed on encroached Government Land. Now, the Apex Court has as such issued directions in relation to that challenge.
Also, it is notable that the Orissa High Court had also observed in its judgement, that the said Secretary- Behera had also observed that the assets of OOA had become the “parental property of some individuals’.
It was also notable in the case details that the OOA was provided 20.808 acres of Government land on lease basis for Stadium construction, in the year 1949 and subsequently OOA allegedly encroached upon 705 decimal of Govt. land adjoining the stadium.
Adv. Faim Khalilkhan Pathan
