Patna, May 11: Patna High Court on Wednesday directed health department joint secretary Ram Kumar Pandey to be personally present in court on June 22 to explain why charges should not be framed against him in a contempt matter initiated by it.

A bench of Justice Navin Sinha passed the direction on a contempt petition filed by Dr Vipul Kumar and others alleging that the officer did not comply with the court’s order directing him to send a proposal to the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) for concurrence of their service as lecturer in government ayurvedic college.

While directing the officer to be personally present on June 22, the court asked Pandey to file his showcause to explain as to why not contempt proceedings should be initiated after framing charges against him in the matter.

The matter pertains to the concurrence of 10 teachers of Sri Dhanwantri Government Ayurvedic College, Ahrauli, Buxar which was taken over by the state government with effect from June 1, 1986. Later, subsequent screening committees of the college found their service conditions as correct and send it to the health department for forwarding their case to the commission for concurrence.

After the government did not take any action in this regard, the lecturers moved the high court seeking direction to the department to send their case for concurrence to the BPSC and also direction to the government to make their payment of arrears since June 1986 when the college was taken over by the government.

On June 24, 2008, the high court directed the health department to send the proposal to the BPSC for getting concurrence of these ayurvedic college teachers within three months and subsequently, the commission would take a decision in a time-frame manner.

The teachers then filed a contempt petition for non-compliance of the court order which was taken up for hearing in the first week of April this year when the court directed Pandey to file its reply.

Shiv Kumar, counsel for the petitioner, said that after issue of showcause notice to the joint secretary in a contempt matter, the department send the proposal to the BPSC for concurrence on May 4.

Kumar submitted that it has been gross and deliberate violation of the court order on the part of the officer as the order had been passed in 2008 but no action was taken till date in the case by the department.