Cuttack, Oct. 4: The Supreme Court's rejection of a petition challenging an Orissa High Court order on the appointment in the civil services has left the state government in a bind.

The state is already facing contempt proceedings for not implementing the high court order after three and a half years. Surya Madhab Panigrahi and Sailendra Kumar Samal were selected for Class-II posts after qualifying the Odisha Civil Services exam in 1987. But they were appointed as sub-registrars, a Class-III post, in 1988.

The duo sought the State Administrative Tribunal intervention, but their petition was dismissed in 2005 on the grounds that 15 years had already passed since the appointment.

The duo approached the high court in the same year. Finally, on January 21, 2014, the court directed the special secretary of the general administration department to appoint the petitioners in Class-II posts and give them seniority accordingly.

The petitioners filed the contempt petition in January 2015 after the government failed to respond when they approached it with the court order. The government, on the other, hand filed a review petition against the order.

The high court rejected the review petition on July 28. Later, when the high court threatened to frame contempt charges for non-implementation of its order, the state government, on September 20, informed that it had filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court.

The special leave petition came up in the Supreme Court yesterday. 'The two judge bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta took note of the non-implementation of the high court order issued three and half years ago and rejected the state government's special leave petition,' petitioner counsel petitioner counsel Pravu Kumar Pandit said today.

'As things stand, the high court has fixed October 10 to make it decision on framing contempt charges against the general administration department's special secretary Ashok K. Meena. The high court has also ordered for his personal appearance on that day,' Pandit said.

On September 11, Meena had appeared in person and informed the court that the department had decided to file the special leave petition and sought time till its disposal by the Supreme Court.

The court had rejected his plea and warned that it would frame contempt charges against him if he failed to file compliance on the January 21, 2014 order by September 20.

But when the matter came up on September 20, general administration department's joint secretary Chittaranjan Patra filed an affidavit stating that a special leave petition challenging the January 21, 2014 high court order had already been filed in the Supreme Court.