On Tuesday, April 11, the Orissa High Court disposed of an over eight-year-old PIL as it felt satisfied over the release of scholarship amounts to students belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) in the state. The SC & ST Development department had filed in pursuance of the court's order issued as part of the adjudication of the PIL, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express. 

The division bench comprising Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Gourishankar Satapathy said, "The affidavit dated January 11, 2023, has been perused. It sets out the modalities by the state government for disbursal of the pre-matric scholarships among the SC and ST girls. It states that every year approximately 15 lakhs SC and STs are availing of pre-matric scholarships." 

"Further instructions appear to have been issued to the concerned District Welfare Offices to monitor that all eligible beneficiaries get the scholarship in time," they added. The bench also said, "In view of the above steps taken by the state government no further directions are necessary to issue at this stage. The writ petition is disposed of."
 

Who filed the petition?

Advocate Prabir Kumar Das filed the petition in 2014 seeking intervention against inordinate delay in the disbursal of stipends to the students belonging to SC and ST in the state. The petition was filed after the death by suicide of Banita Naik, a Class VII SC student studying in a government school in Ganjam district, in June of the same year.

Das also sought adequate compensation for the death of the 14-year-old girl. However, the bench said no further order is necessary regarding compensation for the SC girl's death due to suicide as the state government had already paid Rs 1 lakh ex-gratia in the case. 

The deceased girl, identified as Banita Naik, took the extreme step after her parents said they did not have enough money to buy her basic stationery such as a pencil, notebook and other study materials, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.