Demolition of Biju samadhi stayed

BHUBANESWAR: The Puri district and sessions judge, Aswini Kumar Mohapatra, on Wednesday stayed a lower court order to remove Biju Patnaik’s samadhi at Swargadwar. “Last week, the Puri municipality moved the court, challenging the December 27 verdict of civil judge (junior division) ordering demolition of the samadhi within three months,” said the civic body’s lawyer, Sudarsan Mohanty.
In its appeal petition, the civic body submitted that the original complaint was not related to the memorial structure. “The Biju memorial exists on plot no.1,452 whereas the verdict is related to a different plot (1455), which was encroached upon,” said an officer of Puri municipality.
Puri resident Ramesh Prasad Singh, based on whose petition in 1999, the lower court ordered the memorial’s removal said, “I have high regards for the district court’s order but I was not given any notice by the court before it heard the municipality’s appeal. We will take our stand after going through the stay order.”
Singh, a lawyer, alleged that the civic body illegally constructed the memorial in 1999-2000 at Swargadwar, a public place, used for cremating bodies. Singh contended that the memorial of a high-profile person should not be built at the public place.
In her December 27 order, judge Srimayee Acharya said, “The Puri municipality has directed to remove the samadhisthal within three months failing which the same shall be done through the process of court.”