Bengal AG assures court of solving nodal officer issue

West Bengal Advocate General today assured the Calcutta High Court that he would solve the issue of appointing a nodal officer for a one-man committee set up by the court to identify, sale and disburse proceeds to investors in chit fund company MPS Group.
Appearing before a division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice Joymalyo Bagchi, Advocate General Jayanta Mitra prayed for some more time to resolve the issue following a complaint by Justice (retd) S P Talukdar, heading the one-man committee, of non-cooperation by the state government.
As the principal secretary, Finance, Hari Singh Dwivedi appeared before the bench on its direction, the A-G sought a week's time to hold meetings with concerned officials of the state government to appoint a nodal officer and resolve other issues raised by Justice (retd) Talukdar.

Following the assurance of the A-G, the court did not pass any direction and fixed the matter for further hearing on August 11.
The Chief Justice had on July 29 expressed her displeasure at the state government's failure to appoint a nodal officer with regard to identification and disposal of assets of MPS Group for repaying investors.
Justice (retd) Talukdar, in a communication to the Chief Justice, had claimed that as per her order, the committee had approached the state government to appoint a nodal officer, but it has so far been ignored.
The committee also said that in view of this, it may not be able to fulfil its duty and the purpose of forming the committee may not be served.

Expressing displeasure at the state's failure to comply with the court's order, the division bench said it was a very sorry state of affairs as the state government was not giving due attention to the matter.