Contempt Of Court Plea: Orissa HC Asks Higher Education Secy To Physically Appear On March 17

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has directed the Principal Secretary, Higher Education, Saswat Mishra to appear in person on March 17 in connection with a contempt of court plea.

A single bench of Justice BR Sarangi issued the notice while hearing the contempt of court plea filed by Chittaranjan Tripathy and Udit Kumar Panigrahi, the two employees of Sambalpur University.

Notably, the authorities of Sambalpur University had terminated these two employees from the service in July 2014 for alleged dereliction of duty.

Challenging the order of the department, the duo had moved the court, which on August 31, 2014, had directed the University to reinstate them and pay their arrear salary.

The two employees after their reinstatement had requested the varsity authorities to release their arrear salary to which the latter had recommended the same to the Higher Education Department.

But the department, while ignoring the order of the court, issued a fresh order on June 25, 2019, maintaining that the two employees are not eligible to get the arrear salary.

Challenging this order, the employees filed a contempt of court plea in the High Court.