On December 18 last year, the Court had ordered a contempt notice to be served to Narayan Biswas, state minister for Cottage and Small-Scale industies, due to non-compliance of the court’s orders in a case involving a financial tussle. The minister, however, refused to accept the contempt notice.
In an earlier order, the Court had directed Biswas, also the chairman of the Handicraft Development Corporation, to pay a substantial amount to KL Surana, secretary of the corporation. As chairman of the corporation, Biswas had terminated the services of Surana after he failed to return Rs 1,300 to the corporation. But the minister, who belongs to the CPM, did not follow the order. Surana filed a petition at the State Administrative Tribunal challenging the decision of the minister. SAT directed that the corporation should pay him a part of his salary.