Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday took a stern view of the Punjab government's failure to comply with its orders on pending Dearness Allowance (DA) arrears and imposed costs of Rs 1 lakh on Chief Secretary K.P. Sinha, ANI reported. The court directed the Chief Secretary to file a personal affidavit explaining why its directions had not been implemented and to appear personally on November 3, the next date of hearing.
Source: ANI via Daily Prabhat
The order came on a contempt petition filed by Nirmal Singh Dhillon, a retired Chief Engineer of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), alleging non-compliance with the court's directions on DA and Dearness Relief (DR) for employees and pensioners, according to ANI. Live Law reported that Justice Harsh Bunger imposed the Rs 1 lakh costs in the contempt plea against the Chief Secretary for non-compliance of the High Court's order for payment of pending DA to government employees.
Source: Live Law
What the court said
Counsel for the employees submitted that the state government was adopting delaying tactics to avoid implementing the court's orders, and pointed out that the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the state in the Supreme Court had remained on the defect list for more than two months, ANI reported. These are the petitioners' submissions in court, reported as arguments, not findings. During the proceedings, the court questioned why DA/DR benefits had been withheld from employees while the benefits of senior officials had not been similarly withheld, ANI reported.
Source: ANI via Daily Prabhat
Live Law reported that in August the High Court had dismissed a batch of Letters Patent Appeals filed by the Punjab Government and PSPCL, holding that once the state adopted the Central Government pattern for DA and DR, it incurred a binding obligation to release the accrued instalments and could not defer them indefinitely citing financial constraint. On an earlier hearing, the court had noted that defects pointed out by the Supreme Court Registry in the state's SLP had not been removed, contrary to the statement made that the appeal had been re-filed after curing defects, and had sought an explanation from the Chief Secretary, Live Law reported.
Source: Live Law
The matter will now be heard on November 3, when the Chief Secretary is to remain present with his affidavit. The Punjab government has not issued a public response to Tuesday's order in the reports cited here; any government statement will be reported as an update.