Special Vigilance courts set up in Orissa

Bhubaneswar, May 18 (UNI) Two Special Vigilance Courts (SVC) to deal with politicians and senior bureaucrats involved in corruption cases have started functioning in Orissa.

Orissa High Court Chief Justice A K Ganguly inaugurated the SVC at Bhubaneshwar yesterday while another court is located at Cuttack.

The Orissa Special Courts Act, 2006 received the Presidential assent on September 19 last year.

The Biju Patnaik government had formulated a legislation for the trial of politicians and senior bureaucrats in special courts during its tenure in 1990-95.

However, the subsequent Congress government, headed by the then Chief Minister J B Patnaik, repealed the Act and transferred all the corruption cases to the general vigilance courts during 1995-2000.

Later, the Biju Janata Dal-BJP government, led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik which wrestd power from the Congress, revived the Act in 2006.

The main objective of the SVC is early disposal of all disproportionate assets cases involving high profile officers and politicians.

The SVC would try to dispose off the cases within a year, a senior officer said.

Soon after the establishement of the two special courts, the Vigilance department forwarded as many as 18 disproportionate assets cases involving some IAS and IFS officers to the two courts.

Sources said presently as many as 2,230 cases were pending in nine Vigilance courts across the state.

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