Himachal HC's contempt notice to officers in jaundice outbreak

The Himachal Pradesh High Court today slammed the state's officers concerned in jaundice outbreak case for failing to comply with its orders passed from time to time and asked contempt of court would not initiated against them.
A division bench, consisting of chief justice MansoorAhmadMir and justice TarlokSinghChauhan,took exception to the failure of the officers to comply with the directions issued by the court in the cases filed in 2007 and 2014 and said that "prime facie, it appears thatallthesaidofficers havefailedtocomply withthedirectionsmadebythisCourtandtheorderspassed fromtime totime and
aredirectedtoshowcauseastowhythey should not be punished in terms of the mandate of the ContemptoftheCourtsAct."
The HC said that the status report filed by the Secretary, Irrigation and Public Health(IPH), in compliance with the direction issued by the Court on March 3, 2016 was silent about the procedure followedbythe officers/officialswhile releasingtheamountinfavourofthe contractor and the officer(s)/official(s) who had passedthe bills, and asked the Secretary to file a fresh report indicating that whether the procedure was rightly followed or a slip was given.

The bench took on record the status reports filed by alltheDCs, SPs, except the Superintendent of Police, Shimla and the Chief MedicalOfficersand said that the SP incharge,SIT,has filedthestatusreportbut theperusalofthesamedoesdisclosethatSITis trying to conclude the investigation.
However, it is not known whethertheyhavebeenable tofindout,primafacie,whoare

theofficers/personsinvolvedinthe
commissionoftheoffences rightfromtheyear2007.
The bench directed SITtodotheneedfulandcomplywith thedirectionscontainedinprevious orders andsubmitstatusreportbyorbeforethe nextdateofhearing and cautioned thatanydeviationshallbeviewedseriously.
Incompliancewith order of February 25,2016, the state has deposited a sum of 20,00,000 while the Secretary I and PH, filed details of 388 officers/officials including the Law Officers, draftsman, drivers,PAsand stenographersand as to whycontempt
proceedingshavenotbeenframed.
The Court clarified that contempt proceeding be initiated only against those officials directly connected with lifting of water from Ashwani khud, a main source of water for Shimla, and not againstLaw Officers, draftsman, drivers,PAsand stenographers etc.

Taking suo motu notice of media reports following outbreak of jaundice in Shimla due to supply of contaminated water, the High Court had taken up the matter as public interest litigation.
Media reports had said that the water supplied by Ashwani Khud water station scheme was highly contaminated and sewage was mixed with water source.