Orissa HC pulls up state govt over status of seized vehicles

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Wednesday expressed displeasure over the government filing an affidavit on disposal of unclaimed seized vehicles that were lying at police stations across the state with statistics as of May 1, 2022.

A division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice MS Raman termed it unfortunate that in the affidavit filed on November 22 the latest statistics have not been set out. “What have been set out is statistics as of May 1, 2022 which was already taken note of by the court in its previous order on September 19, 2022,” the bench stated.

The affidavit said there were 3,146 unclaimed vehicles lying at police stations. Of them 190 were disposed of and the remaining 2,956  are awaiting disposal. Besides, there were 18,014 seized vehicles at different police stations whose ownership had been ascertained. 

Accordingly, the court directed the state government to positively file on or before December 12 another affidavit with updated position as on November 30.