The Orissa High Court has issued contempt notices to Odisha Chief Secretary Anu Garg and Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh over the alleged failure to fill vacancies in the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, despite an earlier court direction setting a six-month deadline.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice M S Raman issued the notices in an order dated October 29 and listed the matter for November 26, 2026. The bench recorded that the contempt petition alleged non-compliance with an order passed by the court on August 20, 2025.
The petition was filed by Cuttack resident Sonali Swain, who was represented by advocate Mohit Agarwal. It alleged that the Odisha government had not implemented directions issued while disposing of her public interest litigation concerning vacancies in the state consumer redressal system. The petitioner relied on information obtained under the Right to Information Act to highlight the continuing vacancies.
According to the petition, the post of president of the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has remained vacant since July 3, 2023. One of the commission’s four member posts has been vacant since March 4, 2026, while the post of joint registrar has remained unfilled since February 28, 2023.
The petition also listed vacancies in several supporting positions, including personal assistant, senior stenographer, junior stenographer, junior assistant, driver, process server and five peons. These posts support the administrative and procedural functioning of the commission, which hears consumer complaints and appeals within the state’s consumer protection framework.
While disposing of the earlier public interest litigation, the high court had said adequate staffing was necessary for the uninterrupted functioning of consumer redressal bodies and the timely disposal of cases. Referring to Section 46 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the court held that filling sanctioned posts was a statutory responsibility of the state government.
The court had further observed that the government could not absolve itself of this duty or “shirk away its responsibility”. It said consumers approaching quasi-judicial bodies should not be made to wait indefinitely for grievance redressal because of staff shortages, describing timely adjudication as “a need of the hour”.
The August 2025 order directed the state government to fill all vacant sanctioned posts in the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission within six months. It also asked the government to begin recruitment at least six months before an anticipated vacancy so that the consumer redress mechanism could function without interruption.
The contempt proceedings will next come up before the high court on November 26, 2026.
