Not satisfied with the State Government's reply on the State Youth Commission, the Jharkhand High Court on Friday asked the State to file a fresh answer to the show cause issued against it and tell the court whether the previous order of reinstating the Commission has been complied with or not. A single bench of Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh was hearing the contempt petition filed by the commission chairman Chandrabhushan Kumar. The Commission was dissolved again yesterday.
"The court was quite annoyed with the reply filed by the State against the show cause notice issued to the Sports and Youth Affairs Secretary Vandana Dadel and has asked her to comply with the order and file a report within two weeks," said Kumar's advocate Rajeev Ranjan. "The court also observed that the officers are playing smart... they should be knowing that the court also has powers and can pass appropriate orders," added Ranjan.
Kumar's counsel pleaded that the fresh termination notice issued by the government amounts to the gross contempt of the court order which had earlier passed a judgement to reinstate the Youth Commission which has, incidentally, failed to take off ever since it was constituted by the Arjun Munda Government on January 8. It was first dissolved by Governor Syed Ahmed during the President's Rule.
Additional Advocate General Jaiprakash, on the other hand, said that since the court was not satisfied with the State's answers it has asked to file a fresh reply within two weeks.
Remarkably, the State has been deliberately delaying the case in the High Court as it took time to file reply on November 22 against the show cause issued to it. The State government, in the mean time, dissolved the commission though a contempt petition filed by the chairman was pending in the court.
When commission members approached the court against the first dissolution, the court directed the Government to reinstate the commission. When the government did not comply with the judgement, its members again filed a contempt application in the court following which the court issued a contempt notice against the Government.
As soon as the Government was issued a notice of contempt, it issued a show cause notice to the members, including the chairman calling the whole appointment process as illegal. The court directed the State to comply with the order, but the State Government terminated the commission, instead.