Patna HC hauls up two top officials for contempt

The Patna High Court has initiated contempt proceedings against Bihar’s law secretary in-charge Jyoti Swaroop Srivastava and joint secretary Umesh Kumar Sharma for their disobedience of its order in a case relating to the reappointment of a public prosecutor (PP).

The Patna High Court has initiated contempt proceedings against Bihar’s law secretary in-charge Jyoti Swaroop Srivastava and joint secretary Umesh Kumar Sharma for their disobedience of its order in a case relating to the reappointment of a public prosecutor (PP).

The Patna high court. (HT Photo)

In a written order uploaded on the court’s website on Tuesday, Justice PB Bajanthri asked both the officers to be present in the court in person and face the contempt proceedings on the next date of hearing, which is March 31.

The matter relates to termination of service of the then PP of Motihari, Jai Prakash Mishra, by the government in 2019, which the court had held illegal and unjustifiable in December 2021, after the victim challenged the government’s action through a writ. Accordingly, the government was asked to reinstate Mishra as PP.

Mishra had filed a contempt case in January this year after the law department refused to reinstate his service despite the court’s order to do it within a week.

During the hearing of the contempt case, Justice Bajanthri noted, “The secretary and joint secretary, law department, shall be present in the court to face contempt petition. It is to be noted that disobedience to orders of this court dated December 21, 2021, amounts to manifestly a contempt. An undertaking given to a court if disobeyed is contempt.”

Earlier, in the same case, the court had sent a show cause notice the chief minister’s office (CMO) after the law department’s joint secretary stated that the file regarding Mishra’s appointment was pending for the chief minister’s approval. It had also imposed a cost of ₹10,000 on the law department and mandated for personal appearance of the joint secretary during each hearing of the contempt case.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Satish Chandra Mishra, said that framing of the charges against as senior a bureaucrat as the secretary in a contempt case was rare. “In 2003, the court of Justice RS Garg had summoned the then chief secretary KAH Subramanium and ordered for his arrest in a matter relating to the contempt of court,” he said.