By Bizodisha Bureau, New Delhi, April 6, 2015

A two-judge bench of Justice V Gopal Gowda and Justice C Nagappan, slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the petitioner saying that the case was filed with ill intention.

The petitioner on March 11 through a SLP had sought the Apex court’s intervention for summons to be issued to the Odisha chief minister on the grounds that it was his letter to the Centre that had tilted the scales in favour of Hindalco in the allocation of the Talabira II coal block in Sundargarh district, which had already been allocated to central PSU Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC).

The petitioner’s counsel Suresh Tripathy had argued that since six persons, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former secretary, union coal ministry, PC Parakh, had already been summoned in the case by a special CBI court in Delhi, there was no ground to exempt Patnaik from the summons,.

Meanwhile, the apex court stayed the summons issued to Manmohan Singh.

The BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb hailed the SC’s verdict saying that the tirade against Naveen Patnaik by the opposition had no value. “Recommending someone’s case for the greater public interest is no crime. Our government has always been transparent and worked for state’s interests. The order of the Apex Court has vindicated our stand”, he remarked.