Cuttack, July 5: Orissa High Court has directed the chief secretary to appear before it in person on July 12 in connection with a contempt petition.
On Monday, the court issued the order after rejecting an affidavit filed by the chief secretary.
On June 22, the court imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on the chief secretary for failing to comply with a direction issued for filing an affidavit in connection with the contempt petition. On April 24, the court directed the state government to file the affidavit.
The government was to file the affidavit in connection with compliance of an order issued on January 21, 2014. While imposing costs of Rs 1,000, the court had fixed July 3 as fresh deadline for filing of the affidavit.
The chief secretary filed an affidavit on Monday. "The division bench of Justice Sanju Panda and Justice S.N. Prasad rejected the affidavit as it took the plea that records for compliance of the order had been lost since 2006 and asked chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi to appear in court in person on July 12," petitioner counsel Pravu Kumar Pandit said.
"The Rs 1,000 fine was to be submitted in the registry on Monday. But, it was not deposited," Pandit said.
According to case records, the petitioner had been selected for Class II posts in the Odisha Civil Services in 1987, but was appointed in Class III post as sub-registrar in 1988. In the same year, he had sought intervention of the State 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.
After the court issued the contempt notice, the government received it. But, it 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.
