Bhubaneswar: Andhra Pradesh Government’s plea for quashing the contempt petition filed by the State of Odisha over the Kotia dispute has been denied by the Supreme Court on Friday.
The Odisha government has alleged that the Andhra Pradesh government had taken over certain villages belonging to the latter in violation of an order of the apex court.
The apex court also deferred the hearing on the long-standing border dispute between the two States pertaining to some villages under Kotia GP in the Koraput district of Odisha.
The next hearing of the case will be in the first week of January.
Advocate Sibo Sankar Mishra, who is representing the Odisha Government, informed the court about the recent meeting between the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik.
The Chief Ministers had decided that the Chief Secretaries of both the states will set up an institutional mechanism to deliberate on outstanding issues and find a solution that is in the best interest of the people of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
He prayed to the Supreme Court to defer the hearing of the matter and await the outcome.
Senior Advocate S Niranjan Reddy, who is representing the Andhra Pradesh Government, asked the court to dispose of the contempt proceeding against them stating there is no point in keeping it pending as the State is trying to find out a political solution.
However, the Supreme Court observed that the States must work out a political solution but as there is a serious breach of the status quo order passed by the apex court, it will be decided upon if the political solution is not worked out.
Worth mentioning, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart YS Jagan Mohan had a meeting in Bhubaneswar on November 9.
Later, both the governments had issued a joint statement over formation of a high level committee comprising the Chief Secretaries of both the states to find solutions to bring all border disputes to an end.
