Patna, Dec. 17: Patna Municipal Corporation commissioner Kuldip Narayan's suspension case took a new turn when acting Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari directed a full bench of the high court to hear it.

A full high court bench consists of a minimum of three judges and can be constituted by either the chief justice or acting chief justice of the high court. A matter is referred to a full bench of the high court when two different benches of the court have varied opinions on the issue, senior high court lawyer Dinesh Kumar said.

The directive came after the government counsel urged the acting chief justice to look into the matter. A day ago, a division bench of Justice V.N. Sinha and Justice P.K. Jha had reserved its judgment in the case saying its earlier order putting a stay on the suspension order against the commissioner would remain in effect till the judgment is delivered.

Talking to The Telegraph, government's counsel and principal additional advocate general (PAAG) Lalit Kishore said: 'I referred the issue to the acting chief justice as on December 15 two division benches of the high court passed two contradictory orders while hearing two separate PILs. The state government was in a dilemma on which of the two differing orders it should recognise, so it was necessary to resolve the issue.'

While the bench of Justice Sinha and Justice Jha stayed the PMC commissioner's suspension order on December 15, the same day the bench of acting chief justice Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari and Justice Samarendra Pratap Singh passed adverse remarks on the PMC's functioning and restrained itself from speaking on the suspension issue. It also said the issue could not be taken up during hearing of a PIL.

PAAG Kishore said, now, the full bench would decide whether orders passed by Justice V.N. Sinha's bench were correct. But its order would remain intact till the full bench takes a contrary view, Kishore said.

On Wednesday, PAAG Kishore told the bench of acting chief justice Ansari that in light of the order passed by the latter on December 15 the bench of justice V.N. Sinha could have passed an order not in variance with it. This is because the bench of Justice V.N. Sinha was apprised of the order passed by the acting chief justice's bench earlier in the day.

The state government had suspended the PMC commissioner on December 12, despite a high court stay on his transfer. The government issued the suspension notification after the urban development and housing department moved a proposal saying PMC was not disposing of its duty properly.