Contempt case: CAT asks railway officials to be present in next hearing

Bhopal: The Jabalpur bench of central administrative tribunal (CAT) has ordered general manager of west central railway Sudhir Kumar Gupta, divisional railway manager (DRM) of Bhopal Saurabh Bandopadhyay and senior divisional personnel officer of Bhopal Ajay Dixit to remain present before the tribunal during next hearing of a contempt petition on May 16. Advocate for the petitioner N S Ruprah said that his client Shivansh Pandey had acquired land registered in his father's name. The norms provide that a job would be provided to a family member in railways against land acquisition. He was offered a job as trackman in railways. Since he is physically-disabled, he requested the railway administration to give him a job in some other departmen, but his application was rejected. Later, he agreed to take the job of trackman, but the railway administration refused to give him that job either.Pandey then moved the central tribunal which asked the railway administration to issue an appointment letter to the petitioner within a week. The contempt petition was filed after the CAT order to issue appointment letter to Pandey within a week was not complied with. In his contempt petition, Pandey said that senior divisional personnel officer Ajay Dixit has issued an order that he would be given a compensation of Rs 5 lakh in place of a job. Taking non-compliance of its order seriously, the bench of Justice A K Shrivastava and Justice Rajesh Chandra asked for personal appearance of respondents in the case   on next date of hearing on May 16, 2023. TNN