By Our Staff Reporter
Nainital, 19 Nov: The Uttarakhand High Court today heard the contempt petition filed against the state government for not complying with the previous order issued in the interest of the UPNL Employees Union. After hearing the case, a single bench of Justice Alok Kumar Verma issued a notice of contempt to Chief Secretary Radha Raturi and asked her to submit a reply. The court has fixed 24 December as the date for the next hearing of the case.
In this regard, a contempt petition has been filed by the UPNL Employees Union, stating that the High Court, while hearing the PIL of Kundan Singh vs State Government and others in 2018, had ordered the state government to make rules for regularising the UPNL employees, not to collect GST from their salary, and to pay them at least minimum wages to them.
It may be recalled that the state government had approached the Supreme Court against this order, but the Supreme Court had upheld the order of the High Court. The special appeal of the government was also rejected. However, the state government has still not complied with the orders of the High Court. Though, the Supreme Court dismissed the special leave appeal of the state government, even after the order, the state government has not yet made any rules regarding regularising the UPNL employees. It has also been claimed that despite working for years, the state government is now removing the UPNL employees and issuing regular notifications and for regular recruitment on these posts.
