JUDGMENT

S. K. SAHOO, J. - “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s

need, but not every man’s greed.”

- Mahatma Gandhi

Richness of Odisha in mineral wealth is the divine blessings of Lord Jagannath who is the presiding deity of the State. The geographical setup of the State has gifted its huge treasure of bauxite, chrome, iron ore, coal, manganese to several mineral based industries which in turn have provided employment not only to the people of this land of biodiversity but also to the people residing beyond its territory and thereby developing their economic standard. Unfortunately some greedy high ups have exploited the mother earth for years together by extracting minerals for their personal benefits and some other equally greedy and corrupt public officials have facilitated such exploitation. Finally the authorities awoke from the deep slumber of Kumbhakarna to find that there has been loss of thousand of crores rupees to government exchequer.

2. The petitioner Manas Ranjan Mohanty was the Deputy Director of Mines, Joda from 07.07.2003 to 04.07.2005 presently under suspension and he is in jail custody since 27.06.2015 in connection with Balasore Vigilance P.S. Case No. 30 dat