HC pulls up Chief Secretary

Bilaspur, May 5 (UNI) Chief Secretary Shivraj Singh and Law Secretary T P Sharma appeared before the Chhattisgarh High Court here yesterday after they were summoned by the single-bench of Justice Satish Agnihotri for the laxity in filing replies by various government departments on schedule.

The Judge had earlier expressed his annoyance over lack of seriousness on the part of the government and sought personal appearance of both senior bureaucrats. The officers told the court that directives would be issued to all departments to file replies on schedule through the Advocate General's office.

According to court sources, lack of coordination among government advocates and the Advocate General's office, besides failure to submit replies with full information is leading to frequent adjournment causing problems to litigants. The judges raised the issue with government advocates on many occasion, but no improvement was seen, the sources added.

UNI