Calcutta, March 12: Calcutta High Court today asked the director-general of Bengal police to serve a contempt notice to minister of state of cottage and small scale industries, Narayan Biswas, after court messengers trying to deliver it were subjected to harassment.

Biswas must appear before the court within four weeks of receiving the notice.

Justice J. Biswas observed that the minister was avoiding the court and not accepting the contempt notice issued against him for flouting an earlier order asking him to reinstate an employee of West Bengal Handicraft Development Corporation (WBHDC).

“The minister, as the chairman of WBHDC, had sacked an employee for allegedly refusing to sign the fuel bill of a car used by his wife. The high court on December 18 last year had asked the minister to reinstate the employee and pay him his dues within a fortnight. But Biswas failed to carry out the order and a contempt case was lodged against him,” said Arunava Ghosh, the lawyer appearing for the WBHDC worker.

“The first contempt notice was sent in January by post, but the minister did not accept it. A court messenger took the second notice to the WBHDC office, but was told that the minister was unavailable. The third notice was sent to Writers’ Buildings, but officers manning Biswas’s chamber kept the messenger waiting for five hours before telling him that the minister was at Raj Bhavan,” added Ghosh.