The Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Opposition BJP are engaged in mudslinging over the establishment of a permanent bench of the Orissa High Court in Sambalpur.

The Supreme Court has ruled that there is no need to set up a permanent bench and condemned the action of the lawyers who have been agitating on the demand.

The BJD on Friday accused the BJP of misleading and spreading falsehood over the sensitive matter of establishing a permanent bench of the high court in Sambalpur, the political nerve centre of western Odisha. It asked the BJP to stop shedding crocodile tears on the issue.

The BJD’s response came after the BJP accused it of not taking any proactive steps for setting up the bench.

BJD Rajya Sabha member Sasmit Patra said: “Several times before and again on September 5, 2018 chief minister Naveen Patnaik had given total commitment to the Centre to provide all adequate resources, including infrastructural and financial resources, for setting up the western Odisha High Court bench. Despite CM’s blank cheque for all work in this regard, why the Centre is not proceeding to name the location in consultation with Orissa High Court is surprising.”

He added: “The Centre can establish the western Odisha High Court bench through Parliament by exercising its powers under Entry-78 of the Union List in the Constitution. Whenever elections come, the BJP starts shedding crocodile tears on the issue and forgets it once the elections are over.”

The BJD said the state BJP should ask its government at the Centre to establish the bench. “Who is stopping them?” Patra added.

Earlier, BJP MPs Suresh Pujari, Nitesh Gang Deb, Sangeeta Singh Deo, Jaul Oram and Basant Panda shot off a letter to Patnaik seeking his intervention on the issue.