(Rpting with correction and added information)

Jodhpur, May 7 (UNI) Rajasthan High Court today convicted two IAS officers for not complying with court orders in providing clearance to a nursing college here and handed down 15-days jail term to one of them.

Sudhir Bhargava and G S Sandhu, former health secretaries have been found guilty of contempt of court as they failed to give clearance for starting a Nursing College in Jodhpur even after getting its feasibility report approved by the Indian Nursing Council (INC).

Justice Prakash Tatiya sentenced Bhargava to 15 days jail and fined him Rs 10,000. While Sandhu has been asked to pay Rs 5,000.

According to the case, a society called Rajasthan Vikas Sansthan (RVS) intended to start the Gorvi College of Nursing in Jodhpur and had the feasibility report approved from INC.

RVS then approached the state government in September 2002 for a 'No Objection Certificate' from the state government.

But the state health department failed to give the clearance, failing which the society chairman Manish Vyas approached the High Court in 2005 and obtained a stay order on the NOC.

The government had given a NOC to the nursing college, which was later withdrawn. The petitioner then obtained a stay order on the on the withdrawal of the NOC.

The hearings continued and in 2005 the society lodged cases of contempt against the health secretaries. During 2005-06 hearings, the court directed the government to see the matter in a positive light.

But with no compliance of the court orders, the High Court bench today found the former health secretaries guilty of contempt of court and penalised them.

UNI