Ranchi, March 3: Annoyed by the lackadaisical approach of government advocates towards PILs (public interest litigations), Jharkhand High Court today remarked that the lawyers were not interested in assisting the court in cases that affect the masses.

A division bench of Justices S.J. Mukhopadhaya and M.Y. Eqbal expressed their displeasure after the government advocates concerned failed to appear in two cases that were listed for hearing today.

While one case was related to the construction of model hospitals in the state, the other was over illegal slaughterhouses in Jamshedpur and Ranchi.

The junior government advocates, who appeared for the first case, told the court that the government will soon be completing the hospital project.

The bench, unsatisfied with the explanations, remarked that the state?s senior advocates do not appear before the court, due to which the proceedings take considerable time.

The court then summoned health secretary Shivendu to explain what has been done to construct model hospitals at Brambey, Dhanbad and Deoghar. Having joined recently, the secretary could not furnish many details but replied that the work is in progress.

Government lawyers were missing from the courtroom when the case related to the construction of illegal abattoirs came up for hearing.

A Syed Naushad of Jamshedpur had filed a PIL pointing out to the court how illegal slaughterhouses were making the lives of people living in its vicinity miserable.

The court, while hearing the petition, had decided to include Ranchi, too, in the case. The court had also ordered the deputy commissioners concerned to look into the matter and select places where the construction of slaughterhouses could happen.

The high court has summoned Ranchi deputy commissioner Pradeep Kumar and his Jamshedpur counterpart Nitin Madan Kulkarni on March 10 to explain what has been done in the matter of selecting places where slaughterhouses would be built.

Naushad?s counsel A.K. Das had mentioned in the petition that slaughterhouses were illegally operating at Jamshedpur and the wastes were getting dumped into drains, which get clogged and create problems for the people.