Patna, Aug. 24: Patna High Court today directed human resource development (HRD) department secretary K.K. Pathak to appear before it personally tomorrow in a suo motu contempt proceedings initiated against him.

The high court had directed additional advocate-general Lalit Kishore on August 20 to inform it today when the secretary would like to appear before the court.

When Kishore sought suspension of hearing of the suo motu against the secretary because a letter patent appeal had been filed, the court issued the order.

“I direct the HRD secretary K. K. Pathak, to be personally present before the court on August 25 at 2pm,” a bench of Justice Navaniti Prasad Singh said after hearing the additional advocate-general’s plea.

When Kishore argued that the contempt proceeding against the HRD secretary should not be taken up till the letter patent appeal was heard, the court observed the AAG could not have this luxury.

“The court has not passed any stay order on his letter patent appeal so he (Pathak) should accept the court’s order with full humility,” the court stated.

Earlier, Patna High Court had directed HRD secretary on July 30 to appear before it personally on August 18 in a contempt matter.

The case listed before another bench on August 18, was later transferred to the court of Justice Navaniti Prasad Singh. Pathak was asked to appear before the court on August 20.

The court initiated the contempt proceedings against the HRD secretary for asking the authorities concerned to stop grants to the university for 10 months if they did not carry out change in absorption dates and subsequent recovery of extra payment made to teachers.

Patna High Court had, earlier, clearly stated that no coercive action should be taken against the teachers. The HRD secretary, however, directed the universities to make recoveries from the teachers after setting the absorption dates.

Three Patna University teachers, including Vinay Kanth, Dharmsheela Prasad and P.K. Poddar, challenged HRD’s order threatening to withhold salary grants of next 10 months if the department orders on absorptions and recovery of extra payment were not complied with immediately.