Orissa High Court judge recuses from hearing pleas against Naveen Patnaik

Cuttack: Justice S K Mishra of Orissa High Court on Wednesday recused himself from hearing petitions seeking disqualification of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as an MLA for allegedly filing incorrect affidavits in the 2014 assembly elections.

As the cases were listed today, Justice Mishra withdrew from the case proceedings and requested the Chief Justice to allot the cases to another bench, said Pitamber Acharya, advocate of one of the petitioners.

It was not immediately ascertained as to why Justice Mishra recused himself from hearing the cases.

Sources said this could be due to the fact that one of the petitioners ? Subash Mohaptra, in the meantime, has approached the Supreme Court seeking transfer of his case to the Delhi High Court.

Mohapatra had approached the Supreme Court last month and the apex court after admitting the petition, issued notices to Patnaik and Election Commission of India (ECI).

On the other hand, BJP leader Devananda Mohapatra, who has not made any plea in the apex court seeking to transfer his case, on the day, urged the High Court to adjudicate over his petition as was done before.

Both the petitioners had alleged gross discrepancies in the statements of account and expense the BJD supremo incurred during the May 2014 elections while contesting from Hinjili Assembly segment in Ganjam district.