A division bench, comprising Justice Devinder Gupta and Justice S K Aggarwal, adjourned the hearing to November 1, after senior advocate Sidharth Shankar Ray sought more time to place before it the report and the State government's view point on the question of jurisdiction of this High Court to entertain a petition in this regard.

A non-governmental organisation, Movement for National Awareness (MNA), had filed a public interest litigation seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the case.

MNA counsel Viraj R Datar said the CAG report had already been placed before the State Assembly.

He said that Union government had ordered a CBI inquiry into the case and at the same time the CAG had also pointedmany "irregularties" in running the State lottery by the government of Nagaland.

The petition had alleged that the Nagaland government had "deliberately" left "serious gaps and lacunae" in running the lottery and a sole distributor of the State government in Delhi was "illegally" allowed to retain the prize money on unsold tickets, which should have been reverted to the State.

This had been depriving income tax authorities of the due revenue on the lottery trade as under the laws the tax had to be deducted at the rate of 40 per cent at source, it said.