The Uttarakhand High Court on Friday slammed the state government for flaunting its order to remove a senior managing director rank official who had been holding the position for nearly three years despite not being qualified for the same. The court has ordered the principal secretary power R Meenakshi Sundaram to appear before it in the next hearing and reason why he should not be prosecuted for contempt of court.
The high court order to initiate a contempt case against Meenakshi Sundaram was issued as the state Power Department failed to honour its judgement delivered on February 18 to expel the Managing Director of Power Transmission Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (PTCUL) after hearing a petition for the past more than three years. In its judgement, the court had pronounced that PTCUL MD PC Dhyani was not qualified to be appointed as he lacked any engineering degree needed as per norms.
It is notable that following the February 18 order of the Nainital High Court Meenakshi Sundaram had stated that the government was studying the order and appropriate action will be taken on the advice of the state Law Department. However, the Pushkar Singh Dhami government failed to honour the high court order. On the contrary, the Dhami cabinet amended the norm for appointing MD PTCUL. A cabinet decision taken on Wednesday mandatory engineering qualification for appointing PTCUL MD was removed and non engineering graduates were also allowed to be qualified for the position. Based on this decision of the state cabinet Dhami government was mulling over to file a revision petition in the HC against its February 18 judgement.
However, multiple contempt petitions were filed against the government’s alleged indifferent conduct towards HC order. Hearing upon the contempt petition Justice Alok Verma’s single bench of the High Court pronounced that “petition has been filed under contempt of court’s act 1970 for willful disobedience of the order dated February 18, 2026 passed in writ petition PIL number 70 of 2025 Anil Chand Baluni versus state of Uttarakhand and others.”
The order said that respondent number one Secretary energy was appointing authority of the respondent number three PC Dhyani.
“The respondents have deliberately not taken any action till date. The respondent number three is still illegally holding the post. He is still discharging the functions of the managing director. He is flaunting the order dated February 18, 2026. It’s prima-facie a case of willful disobedience of the order dated February 18, 2026. “Condemning that indifferent behaviour of the state energy secretary Justice verma ordered “Notice is being issued to the respondent number one Dr R Meenakshi Sundaram Principal Secretary Energy, Government of Uttarakhand. He is directed to appear before this court through video conferencing on March 19 at 10.30 AM and show cause as to why proceedings for contempt of court should not be initiated against him.”