india

Updated: Jul 20, 2019 02:04 IST

The Patna civil court on Friday ordered attachment of offices of the state chief secretary and a few other senior officials for not complying with the order of a district judge to pay Rs. 664.85 crore to a cooperative bank in a case of long-pending dues.

The court issued the directive on the petition of Multi State Cooperative Land Development Bank (MSCLDB), formerly known as Bihar Rajya Sahkari Bhumi Vikas Bank Samiti, Bihar and Jharkhand, after the state government refused to pay the stipulated sum at the end of a long-drawn legal dispute, which was finally resolved in 2016.

MSCLDB is a financial institution that provides long-term credit facilities to farmers of the state.

Last year, the district court had given an execution order, asking the state government to clear the dues to the MSCLDB, which it had incurred as a result of its spending on various schemes on the instructions of the state government since 1982.

MSCLDB has made the chief secretary, Bihar, principal secretaries of finance, cooperative, minor irrigation and the registrar of cooperative societies party to the case.

“The application dated 35/5/19 filed by the decree holder was moved..., praying that an attachment order be issued against the defendants [state of Bihar and others]...The application filed on behalf of the decree holder... is allowed. The office is directed to issue the attachment order of property [of] the defendants,” court order on Friday read.