Adjournments in poll cases irk High Court

The Orissa High Court today slapped a fine of Rs 1,000 on Khandapada BJD MLA Anubhav Patnaik for seeking more time to begin his argument on a petition he had filed challenging the election petition pending against him.
Aama Odisha Party (AOP) president Soumya Ranjan Pattnaik, who had lost to the BJD legislator in Assembly polls held of April this year, had challenged the election of Anubhav stating that the election and counting of votes were not done in a proper manner.
The BJD MLA, in response to the court notice, had filed a miscellaneous case urging the High Court to quash the petition of the AOP leader, contending it lacked merit.

The petition of BJD leader was slated for hearing on the day but the MLA's counsel sought some more time to begin his arguments, which irked Justice B K Nayak who imposed the fine.
Similarly, the bench of Justice Biswanath Rath had on Monday slapped a fine of Rs 2,000 on former MLA and Congress leader Surendra Singhbhoi who had challenged the election of Titlagarh BJD MLA Tukuni Sahu.
The Congress leader invited the court's ire as he failed to submit the draft issue of his petition in time.
Earlier, the same bench had also fined BJD MLA Tukuni Sahu twice for not filing her responses to court notices in time.