Cuttack: Orissa high court has issued contempt notices to Odisha chief secretary Anu Garg and principal secretary food supplies and consumer welfare Sanjay Kumar Singh over alleged failure to comply with its order to fill vacancies in the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC) within six months.A division bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice M S Raman, in an Oct 29 order, directed issuance of notice to the two top officers and posted the matter for Nov 26, 2026. “This contempt petition has been filed alleging non-compliance of the order dated Aug 20, 2025 passed by this court,” the bench observed.The contempt petition was filed by Cuttack resident Sonali Swain, represented by advocate Mohit Agarwal, alleging that the state govt failed to implement the directions issued while disposing of her public interest litigation on Aug 20, 2025.The petitioner cited information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act to highlight the continuing vacancies. According to the petition, the post of SCDRC president has remained vacant since July 3, 2023, while one of the commission’s four-member posts has been vacant since March 4, 2026. The post of joint registrar has also remained unfilled since Feb 28, 2023.Several supporting positions, including personal assistant, senior stenographer, junior stenographer, junior assistant, driver, process server and five peons, are also vacant, the contempt petition added.While disposing of the PIL, the high court had emphasised that adequate staffing was essential for the uninterrupted functioning of consumer redressal bodies and timely disposal of cases.Invoking Section 46 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the bench had held that filling sanctioned posts was a statutory responsibility of the state govt, which could neither absolve itself of the duty nor “shirk away its responsibility”.It had observed that consumers approaching these quasi-judicial bodies should not be made to wait indefinitely for grievance redressal because of staff shortages, stressing that timely adjudication was “a need of the hour”.The court had directed the state to fill all vacant sanctioned posts in the SCDRC within six months. It had also asked the govt to initiate recruitment at least six months before an anticipated vacancy to ensure uninterrupted functioning of the consumer redress mechanism.