Jamshedpur, Oct. 16: The government doesn?t appear to be paying heed to court orders judging by the fact that it faces over a thousand cases of contempt filed by aggrieved parties in Jharkhand High Court.

The majority of cases relate to disputes over retirement benefits, pension and other statutory dues that the state government has failed to pay, despite the court orders.

Other cases include matters relating to promotion of government employees and non-payment of dues to parties even after completion of projects. ?It shows how the state government pays scant respect to the court?s orders. Aggrieved parties file a contempt of court case against the government only after the latter fails to comply with court directives,? said the chairman of the state Assembly committee on subordinate legislation, Saryu Rai.

Rai, who is also the BJP legislator from Jamshedpur (West), said the three-member committee had procured the list of contempt cases, lodged against the state government, from the office of the advocate-general after the law department failed to furnish the details on the matter even five months after being asked to do so. ?The Assembly committee on subordinate legislation should ensure that the rules and regulations framed by the executive are implemented properly,? Rai said.

Government officials said it was the responsibility of the department secretaries to ensure that a court order was complied with within the stipulated time. There are about four to five cases of contempt lodged each week in the high court where the state government and the secretaries of the department concerned are made parties, sources said. ?Unless the government cracks the whip on the department authorities, the number of cases is bound to swell in the near future, which is not a healthy sign,? said an official.

Rai said the tendency to flout court directives was a matter of concern. ?The number of contempt cases shows that there is a tendency among a section of the department secretaries to disobey the court orders. We must remember that all must abide by the rule of law,? he said. Rai said he had taken up the issue with Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari and would meet chief minister Arjun Munda, who also hold the law portfolio.

?We are toying with the idea of developing a mechanism which will monitor whether the authorities concerned are complying with the court orders within the stipulated timeframe. There has to be some sort of mechanism which will ensure that the government officials act with alacrity when any court order is passed,? Rai said.

Advocate-general A.K. Sinha admitted that the number of contempt cases is more than 1,000. ?In some cases, the court orders are not complied with. But there are also cases where the parties were unhappy even after the government complied with the court orders,? he said.