The beleaguered sports administrator, Asirbad Behera, who had stepped down from the post of honorary secretary of Odisha Olympic Association (OOA) last month, will continue to stay away from the affairs of the sporting body as the Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the OOA case to July 13 for further hearing.
A Division Bench of the apex court comprising Justices Dipak Misra and P. C. Pant putting off the case for three months said the interim order passed on the earlier occasion shall remain in force until further orders.
The Bench on March 9 had restrained Behera from functioning as the Association secretary, following which he had stepped down from the post on the same day.
The apex court is currently adjudicating over the civil Special Leave Petition filed by the OOA in which the Association has challenged a judgment of the Orissa High Court. The HC in March 2014 had ordered the State government to take possession of around two acres of government land adjoining the Barabati stadium here, which had been purportedly encroached upon by the OOA.
Claiming that the contentious land is within the leased area of the OOA, the Association had developed a commercial complex on it including 23 shops and a marriage mandap called Barabati Palace. The OOA had also told the apex court that the commercial complex was built to raise funds for development of sports in the State. When informed that the commercial complex was run by Behera’s son and son-in-law, the Supreme Court seeing a “conflict of interest” in it, had restrained Behera from functioning as OOA secretary of OOA.
