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Top court seeks Andhra's response on Odisha's contempt plea on border row
Senior advocate Vikas Singh appearing for the Odisha government told the top court that elections will be held in violation of a Supreme Court order of December 2, 1968 passed in a suit between the two states.
The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Andhra Pradesh government on an allegation by Odisha that the former was holding local body elections in three villages falling under Odisha’s territory.
The notification announcing Panchayat elections was issued by the Collector of Vizianagaram district in Andhra Pradesh on March 5, 2020.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh appearing for the Odisha government told the top court that elections will be held in violation of a Supreme Court order of December 2, 1968 passed in a suit between the two states. The court had ordered status quo to be maintained by the parties over 21 villages in Koraput district of Odisha. The three villages going to polls were stated to be part of this batch.
Moving a contempt petition against top officers of the Andhra Pradesh government and the State Election Commissioner (SEC), the Naveen Patnaik government claimed that the action of holding polls was clearly in contempt of the 1968 order. Although the suit was dismissed in 2006 on technical grounds, Odisha maintained that both states agreed to abide by the status quo order.
For Andhra Pradesh, standing counsel Mahfooz Nazki denied the charges and raised preliminary objections against entertaining the contempt petition. Since Nazki did not have a copy of Odisha’s petition, the bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Aniruddha Bose said, “We are not passing any order. You (Andhra Pradesh) first go through the application and file your response including preliminary objections. We will decide next Friday.”
Singh informed the Court that the elections will be held on Saturday. The bench observed, “Whatever consequences will flow from our order will follow.”
The petition by Odisha claimed that the three villages falling in Koraput have been shown as part of Salur Panchayat mandal of Vizianagaram by changing their original names from Ganjaipader, Phattusenary, and Phagusenary to Ganjaibadra, Pattuchennuru and Phaguluchennuru, respectively.
The state accused Andhra Pradesh of “invading” into its territory and named Vizianagaram Collector Mude Hari Jawaharlal as the first contemnor for issuing the election notification last year. “In the notification deliberately the contemnors roped in three villages from the ‘Kotia Group of villages’ falling under the territory of Koraput district of Odisha into Salur Mandal of Vizinagaram district (AP). Clandestinely the contemnors changed the name of the three villages of Kotia Gram Panchayat,” the Odisha government alleged.
The petition further named Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Adityanath Das and SEC N Ramesh Kumar as co-contemnors. Administratively and otherwise, the state of Odisha has been in control of these villages throughout, the petition stated. The matter will be heard by the Supreme Court on February 19.
