Karnataka govt fixes nodal officers to deal with court matters

Faced with a barrage of civil contempt cases in the courts and the state administrative tribunal after various departments have failed to implement the orders of courts, the state government has appointed the head of departments as nodal officers to put an end to the confusion over accountability.

Officials said that the order from the Department of Administrative Reforms comes in the wake of the courts threatening contempt proceedings for the failure of the department to implement the directions.

In cases where the state government or its departments are parties, the secretary/principal secretary/additional chief secretary of the concerned department will be the nodal officer to monitor the compliance of the orders from the high court, Supreme Court or the state administrative tribunal (KSAT), it said.

Where the government is not a party, then the concerned head of the department or deputy commissioner of a district will be the nodal officer to monitor the compliance of such orders, it added.

The latest order comes on the back of the GO issued on December 6 which said delays in a follow-up action, including appeals, review petitions or special leave petitions, has led to the government losing cases and also denied "rights of citizens".

It said that all the departments should use the Court Case Monitoring System (CCMS) for tracking, follow-up and timely action on each case of the courts and listed 43 steps to be followed by the government employees within a time limit at various levels, from section officers to the heads of the departments and even the chief secretary.

Sources in the government said service-related matters are among the top of the issues pending at the government level for months despite the orders from courts and tribunals.

"There are several cases of improper implementation or non-implementation of orders. The Irrigation, departments, DPAR and Home Departments have more than 50 such cases," the source added.