Supreme Court summons Jharkhand Chief Secretary, slams State for 'sleeping over' 20-year-old case on back wages

The Supreme Court on Tuesday took exception to the Jharkhand government not appointing counsel in a case concerning payment of back wages dating back 20 years. (Bihar State Ardh Sarkari Arajpati Karamchari Maha Sangh and ors v. Union of India and ors).A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Rajesh Bindal directed the Jharkhand Chief Secretary to remain personally present in court on the next date of hearing, on October 9."This is a matter relating to grant of wages to the employees for the last about 20 years...In such a sensitive matter, the State of Jharkhand has been sleeping over it and not even concerned with engaging a counsel in this matter. Let the Chief Secretary of the State of Jharkhand to remain present before this Court on 09.10.2023, for the reason that despite due service of notice no one has put in appearance on behalf of the State of Jharkhand.".Notice was issued in the matter to the Central government as well as the Bihar and Jharkhand governments in December last year.On Tuesday, the Central government granted a week’s time to file its reply.During the course of the hearing, a panel lawyer for the State of Jharkhand, Advocate Pallavi Langar, tried convicing the Bench to reconsider its directions. However, the Bench said,"We are declining the said request for the reason that the present matter has not been assigned to any counsel for the State of Jharkhand and Ms. Langar has made this statement only in good faith to defend the State of Jharkhand.".Advocates Aman Mohit Hingorani, Himanshu Yadav and Naseem Ahmed appeared for the petitioner - Bihar State Ardh Sarkari Arajpati Karamchari Maha Sangh. Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee with Advocates Piyush Beriwal, Nidhi Khanna, Chinmayee Chandra, Rajesh Kumar Singh, AK Sharma and Prashant Rawat represented the Central government. Advocates Abhinav Mukerji, Bihu Sharma, Pratishtha Vij and Mohit Prasad appeared for the Bihar government..[Read order]