Nainital, March 19 R. Meenakshi Sundaram, the Principal Secretary (Energy) of the Uttarakhand Government, appeared before the Uttarakhand High Court via video conference on Thursday during the hearing of a contempt petition.
This contempt petition was filed regarding the non-compliance with a previous order issued by the court, and the High Court had directed Sundaram to appear before it.
The contempt petition was filed by Dehradun resident Anil Baluni and others, stating that in its order dated February 18, the high court had quashed the appointment of Prakash Chand Dhyani as the Managing Director of the Power Transmission Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (PITCUL) and directed the state government to reconsider the matter in accordance with the 2021 Rules.
However, this order was not complied with.
The high court had observed that the appointment violated Rule 9-A of the 2021 Rules, which mandates that an engineering graduate degree is a necessary qualification for this post. Dhyani allegedly does not possess this qualification.
However, during his appearance, Sundaram informed the high court that Dhyani had been removed from the post of Managing Director on February 26.
On the other hand, the petitioners argued that the order removing Dhyani was implemented retrospectively.
They submitted that while Meharban Bisht has been given the additional charge of PITCUL's Managing Director, Dhyani continues to discharge all the functions of the MD.
Sundaram sought time from the high court to file a response, whereupon the court granted him two weeks to file the same.
The matter was heard by a single-judge bench comprising Justice Alok Kumar Verma. The bench has now fixed April 30 as the next date of hearing in the case.