Orissa High Court
Odisha State Cashew Development vs Anintya Kumar Mohanty And Another on 19 April, 2023
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK
W.A. No. 846 of 2021
Odisha State Cashew Development .... Appellant
Corporation Ltd.
Mr. P.K. Tripathy, Advocate
-versus-
Anintya Kumar Mohanty and another .... Respondents
Mr. A. Tripathy, Advocate
CORAM:
THE CHIEF JUSTICE
JUSTICE G. SATAPATHY
ORDER
Order No. 19.04.2023
02. 1. It is seen that on 19th August, 2021 notice had been issued by the
learned Single Judge in W.P.(C) No.24543 of 2021 without
indicating any returnable date but an interim order was passed
directing status quo to be maintained.
2. The present Appellant was Opposite Party No.2 in the writ
petition. The case of the Appellant is that it was not served in the
said writ petition and, therefore, could not appear before the learned
Single Judge on the next date when the case was listed, i.e., 16th
September, 2021. On that date, the writ petition was disposed of in
view of the Judgment dated 9th September, 2021 passed in W.P.(C)
No.19951 of 2020 (Patitapaban Dutta Dash v. State of Odisha).
The impugned order does not reflect the appearance of anyone on
behalf of the present Appellant, i.e., Opposite Party No.2 in the writ
petition. This substantiates the plea of the Appellant that the said
order was passed in its absence.
3. Although this Court has very recently upheld the above order of
the learned Single Judge in (Patitapaban Dutta Dash v. State of
Odisha (supra) given the fact that learned counsel appearing for the
Appellant seeks to distinguish its applicability to the facts of the
present case and also since there was no opportunity to the
Appellant to file even a reply to the writ petition, the Court issues
the following directions:
(i) The impugned order dated 16th September, 2021 is hereby set
aside on the ground that the Appellant did not have an opportunity
to defend itself in the writ petition and restores the said writ petition
being W.P.(C) No.24543 of 2021 to the file of the learned Single
Judge in the Roster Bench;
(ii) The said writ petition will be listed before the learned Single
Judge in the Roster Bench on 7th August, 2023. The present
Appellant will file its para-wise reply to the writ petition on or
before 24th July, 2023 and the Respondent No.1 will file his
rejoinder thereto not later than 7th August, 2023; and
(iii) No further time will be granted to either party for the above
purposes. The learned Single Judge is requested to proceed with the
hearing of the writ petition on merits and dispose it of as
expeditiously as possible. The status quo order passed by the
learned Single Judge will continue till then.
4. The writ appeal is accordingly disposed of with the above
observations and directions.
(Dr. S. Muralidhar)
Chief Justice
(G. Satapathy)
Judge
S. Behera
