Cuttack, June 22: Orissa High Court has imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on the Odisha chief secretary A.P. Padhi for failing to comply with a direction issued for filing an affidavit in connection with a contempt petition.

The Odisha chief secretary was directed on April 24 to file an affidavit in connection with compliance of an order issued on January 21, 2014. But when the contempt petition came up yesterday the court found that the affidavit had not been filed.

"Taking serious note of it, the division bench of Justice Sanju Panda and Justice S.N. Prasad directed the chief secretary to pay costs of Rs 1,000," said petitioner counsel Pravu Kumar Pandit. "The court expected the costs to be deposited with the high court registry by July 3," he added.

The petitioner in the case was selected for Class II posts in the Odisha Civil Services exam in 1987, but was appointed in Class III post as sub-registrar in 1988. He sought intervention of the Odisha Administrative Tribunal. But, the tribunal dismissed his petition in 2005 as 15 years had already passed.

Subsequently, the petitioner moved the high court in the same year. But, the case languished till the court directed the general administration department's special secretary on January 21, 2014 to appoint the petitioner in Class II post and give him seniority accordingly.

"The petitioner approached the government with the high court order, but there was no response. So, we filed the contempt petition before completion of one year in January 2015," Pandit said.

The Odisha government had received the contempt notice, but filed a review petition against the January 21, 2014 order. Taking note of it, the high court on April 24 directed the chief secretary to file an affidavit indicating the steps taken to implement the order.