HC asks govt official to plant saplings for contempt of court

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed the chief engineer of the state public health engineering (PHE) department to plant 200 saplings in 15 days for not complying with an order.

Not only does the engineer has to plant saplings, but he must also take care of them for three years, the court said.

The court was hearing a contempt petition against chief engineer S K Andhwan for not implementing a direction to appoint a person on compassionate grounds, said petitioner's lawyer Vipin Yadav.

The court asked Andhwan to plant saplings within 15 days and take care of them for three years, he said.

A division bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and Anjuli Palo also asked the PHE department to give a job to Ashish Awasthi, the petitioner.

Awasthi had applied for a job after the death of his father Om Prakash Awasthi, who worked as contingency worker in the PHE department in 2014.

The department paid a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the family but refused to give job to Ashish, his lawyer said.

He then moved the high court, but a single judge dismissed the plea.

Awasthi filed an appeal, and the division bench directed the PHE department to consider his claim within six months, advocate Yadav said.

He filed a contempt petition as he was not given the appointment letter despite the court order, the lawyer said.

On July 8, the judges held the chief engineer guilty of contempt of court.

On Tuesday, it disposed of the petition by asking the engineer to plant saplings by way of punishment.

The PHE department said Awasthi will have to deposit Rs 2 lakh for getting the appointment letter. The court directed Awasthi to deposit the amount within six months, advocate Yadav added.