The high court on Wednesday took a written undertaking from the state health secretary that all steps would be taken to ensure that Shyamapada Ghorai, a former director of the Bangur Institute of Neurosciences (BIN), got all his dues at the earliest.

Ghorai, who retired from service in 2015, was publicly snubbed by chief minister Mamata Banerjee during a visit to the institute in May 2011 and suspended as its director.

On Wednesday, the division bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya and Justice Soumen Sen issued the order in a contempt case moved by Ghorai. The case was filed apparently after the state government had failed to carry out an earlier high court order, asking it to immediately disburse the neurosurgeon’s statutory dues.

Counsel Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya and Shamim Ahmed represented Ghorai.

In an earlier order, the division bench had directed health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam to appear before him on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, when the bench asked Nigam why he had failed to carry out the earlier order and clear Ghorai’s dues, the secretary remained silent. The bench then asked him to give a written undertaking that he would take all possible measures so that Ghorai got his dues at the earliest. Nigam submitted the undertaking.

Mamata had made a surprise visit to the hospital on May 26, 2011, and was told by Ghorai that the trail of people behind her was inconveniencing patients.

After questioning Ghorai in public over some faulty equipment, Mamata had said: “It seems you are afraid that if the media come here, you and your acts will be exposed. You have already been exposed. You don’t know etiquette, how to behave with people. I don’t want to speak to you anymore. Meet me tomorrow, I’ll take a decision.”

The same evening, the chief minister had called a meeting of the heads of different state-run hospitals, including BIN, Ahmed said. “But Ghorai could not attend the meeting because he was performing an urgent operation. He was suspended the next day,” Ahmed said.

The lawyer alleged that after suspension, his client did not get salaries in time. Ghorai moved the high court in 2019 because the state did not disburse his salary arrears, statutory dues and pensions, Ahmed said.