Patna, June 11: The Bihar government today deposited Rs 25 crore with the Patna High Court as first installment for disbursal of salary arrears to about 22,000 employees of 19 state-owned boards and corporations honouring the May nine order of the Supreme Court. Officials of the State Bureau of Public Enterprises deposited the amount through cheque with the accounts section of the High Court, official sources said.

The apex court on May nine had directed Bihar to deposit Rs 50 crore in two installments within two months before the Patna High Court for its disbursal among the employees.

The order was given by a bench comprising Chief Justice V Khare and Justice S B Sinha on a public interest litigation filed by Kapila Hingorani. Hingorani was the first to file a PIL in the Supreme Court on the Bhagalpur blinding case way back in the 80s.

The bench had directed the High Court to utilise the money for disbursal of the salaries of 19 boards and corporations under the Bihar government which had not paid salaries to their employees for years.

The Supreme Court had directed the High Court to dispose of all liquidation proceedings in respect of government corporations owned and controlled by the state government as expeditiously as possible and pass interim orders for sale and disposal of the properties thereof for utilisation of the same towards payment of salaries of the employees.

The directives of the apex court would be implemented in toto with regard to disbursal of pending salaries of the corporation and board staff.

Bureau Report