Orissa high court refuses to share or return sealed cover notes in Mission Shakti case

CUTTACK: The Orissa high court has refused to either direct disclosure of government noting submitted in a sealed cover or allow their return to the state, in an ongoing case challenging restructuring guidelines under Mission Shakti.A single-judge bench of Justice Ananda Chandra Behera passed the order on April 27 while disposing interlocutory applications (IAs) filed by Self Help Group (SHG) Federations. The federations had sought copies of documents placed in a sealed cover by the Advocate General during a hearing on April 8, 2026.The case relates to petitions challenging guidelines issued on January 22, 2025, by the commissioner-cum-secretary of the Mission Shakti department. The HC had earlier, on April 25, 2025, stayed two clauses of the guidelines.During the April 8 hearing, the Advocate General submitted certain government noting in a sealed cover. “The said sealed cover was opened and perused by the Court, re-sealed and was handed over to the Secretary of the Court for its safe custody in order to peruse the same only by the Court, if required,” Justice Behera noted in the order.Opposing the continued secrecy, counsel for the petitioners argued that once the court had examined the noting, non-disclosure could raise apprehensions of bias. They also claimed the state had relied on these noting in its arguments.The state, however, submitted that it would not rely on the documents and sought their return. It maintained that internal noting donot amount to final decisions and cannot be the basis for legal claims.Justice Behera agreed that “the noting of the Government are not the decision of the Government and said noting do not confer any right or adversely affect the right of the petitioners… and can neither be challenged in a Court of law nor can be made any basis for seeking any relief.”At the same time, the Judge rejected both pleas and held: “the end of justice shall best be served if the noting of the Government kept in the sealed cover shall neither be opened nor any noting in the same shall be referred… without returning back that sealed cover… but, handing over the said sealed cover to the Registrar (Judicial) of this Court for its safe custody.”Accordingly. Justice Behera dismissed all IAs seeking copies of the documents and also refused the state’s request for their return, directing that the sealed cover remain in judicial custody until further orders.