The Supreme Court expressed its dissatisfaction on Tuesday with the Jharkhand government's failure to appoint legal representation in a case concerning the payment of overdue wages spanning a period of 20 years. The case in question is Bihar State Ardh Sarkari Arajpati Karamchari Maha Sangh and ors v. Union of India and ors.
A Bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Rajesh Bindal directed the Chief Secretary of Jharkhand to personally attend the next hearing on October 9.
"This matter pertains to the payment of wages to employees for the past two decades...In such a sensitive matter, the State of Jharkhand has neglected its responsibilities by failing to engage legal counsel. Therefore, the Chief Secretary of the State of Jharkhand is required to be present before this Court on 09.10.2023, as despite being duly served notice, no representative from the State of Jharkhand has appeared."
Notice regarding this matter was issued to the Central government, as well as the governments of Bihar and Jharkhand, in December of last year.
On Tuesday, the Central government was granted one week's time to file its response.
During the hearing, Advocate Pallavi Langar, acting as a panel lawyer for the State of Jharkhand, attempted to persuade the Bench to reconsider its directions. However, the Bench declined the request, stating,
"We are rejecting the aforementioned request because the State of Jharkhand has not assigned any counsel to this matter, and Ms. Langar's statement is made solely in good faith to defend the State of Jharkhand."
Advocates Aman Mohit Hingorani, Himanshu Yadav, and Naseem Ahmed represented the petitioner, Bihar State Ardh Sarkari Arajpati Karamchari Maha Sangh.
Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee, along with Advocates Piyush Beriwal, Nidhi Khanna, Chinmayee Chandra, Rajesh Kumar Singh, AK Sharma, and Prashant Rawat, appeared on behalf of the Central government.
Advocates Abhinav Mukerji, Bihu Sharma, Pratishtha Vij, and Mohit Prasad represented the Bihar government.
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