The Jharkhand High Court has served notices to the state government as well as the representatives of the Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) union as the state remained in darkness for more than 24 hours due to employees' strike.

Issued by a division bench of Chief Justice P C Tatia and Justice Jaya Roy, the notices asked Chief Secretary S K Choudhary, JSEB Chairman S N Verma and the representatives of the striking union to appear before the court for hearing in the case.

The JSEB union called a flash strike in protest the JSEB's power distribution deal with Tata Power and Calcutta Electric Supply Company (CESC). The JSEB signed MoUs with Tata Power and CESC for the distribution of power in Jamshedpur and Ranchi, respectively.

Speaking on the issue in the state Assembly, CM Arjun Munda said that the union didn't serve notice before going on strike. Sppeaking on the topic, he said, "They should have talked (to the government) before going on strike." He added that the government evoked Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to tackle the situation.

But, JSEB Employees Union's Prasant Chaturvedi argued that the government had proposed a conditional dialogue, and that none of the striking employees returned to work even after the ESMA threat.

The strike plunged almost all parts of the state, including Ranchi, into darkness. East and West Singhbhum and six districts of the Santhal Pargana region were rigorously affected by the strike. Train services on Howrah-Mumbai route were also disrupted severely.