Orissa High Court threatens to withhold law & finance secretaries' December salary if former employee's retiral dues not settled

Expressing its displeasure over the non-settlement of the pension dues in respect of a Hirakud dam employee, a division bench of the Orissa High Court directed the state government to withhold the salary of Finance and Law department secretaries if accounts were not settled before the next hearing. (Mithuram Bhoi v. Anu Garg IAS and Ors.).Justices Sanju Panda and SK Panigrahi were hearing a contempt petition against the state government for a failure to comply with the Court's earlier orders directing the settlement of retiral benefits and amounts.....if the order dated 12.12.2019 ... is not complied with by the next date, the salary for the month of December, 2020 of the Law Secretary as well as Finance Secretary of the Govt. of Odisha will be held up.The Division Bench ruled.The petitioner filed a contempt petition in September this year after the government failed to provide him amounts due him. The state's counsel informed the court that the process was delayed because it required the consent of the state Law and Finance departments..Displeased, the Bench noted that a year had elapsed since the Court's order and despite a contempt petition being filed, the state had not considered the matter and sought additional time to comply.."...one year has been elapsed (since the Court's original order) and for non-compliance of the order, contempt application has been filed, copy of the same has been served on the opp. parties and direction has also been given forinstruction in the matter, but till date the opposite partieshave not considered the matter and sought for further time forcompliance of the order dated 12.12.2019," the Court stated..Requiring the state to take measures to comply with its directions, the Orissa High Court directed that the salaries of the finance and law secretaries be withheld until the amounts were settled..As per case records, the petitioner Bhoi worked as a work-charge employee at Hirakud dam for 37 years before his retirement June 30, 1998. He had approached the Odisha Administrative Tribunal (OAT) in 2015 seeking pensions and other dues. After the Tribunal decreed in his favour, the state through the Water Resources Department approached the High Court, which confirmed the Tribunal's Order. .The High Court last year directed the department to settle Bhoi's pension dues. After this direction was not complied with, the petitioner approached the High Court with a contempt petition..The matter is expected to be taken up next on December 21..Read the Order here: