Chandigarh, Oct 28 The Punjab and Haryana High Court has imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on Punjab Chief Secretary K A P Sinha for failing to file a compliance report in a case pertaining to the pending dearness allowance of employees and pensioners.
A bench of Justice Harsh Bunger also directed the chief secretary to file a personal affidavit by October 30 regarding the court's earlier orders in connection with the release of DA to the state government employees and pensioners.
The chief secretary has also been directed to be physically present in the court on November 3, which is the next date of hearing.
The directions came on Tuesday on a contempt petition filed by employees and pensioners over the non-compliance with the court's August 3 order of releasing DA and dearness relief dues to state employees and pensioners at the rates paid to the members of the All India Services (IAS/IPS/IFS) officers serving in the state on the Central government pattern.
The court had then further directed that till all such dues are cleared, the state of Punjab shall not resort to any unproductive expenditures, such as large-scale advertising campaigns in print or social media, as these expenses cannot justify the denial of dues admissible to state employees.
In default of payment within the time aforesaid, the unpaid amounts shall carry simple interest at the rate of six per cent per annum, the court had then directed.
The state of Punjab had filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court on September 1 against the high court order.
During the hearing on Tuesday, the counsel for the petitioners pointed out that the Special Leave Petition filed by the Punjab government was lying under "defects" and had not been listed for hearing.
After the state counsel sought another accommodation to file the status or compliance report in the matter, the court observed it as totally unjustified.
"The aforementioned facts and circumstances clearly reflect the defiant attitude adopted by the respondents with regard to compliance of the directions issued by this Court, which cannot be countenanced in law," the court said.
The court noted that the present contempt petition was earlier listed for hearing on August 21, when time was granted to file a status/compliance report at the request of the state counsel.
Despite sufficient time having been afforded for the said purpose, no such report has been placed on record till date, it observed.
The counsel for petitioners also pointed out that criminal contempt proceedings have been initiated against the CS for filing a false affidavit regarding the state's appeal in the Supreme Court and the matter is pending before a division bench of the high court.
The court directed the CS to file a personal affidavit by October 30, subject to payment of a cost of Rs one lakh, which is to be deposited with the High Court Lawyers Welfare Fund, for failure to file a status/compliance report despite grant of sufficient time.
A single-bench order came in favour of employees on April 8 with a direction to the state government to clear the pending dearness allowance by June 30.
On August 3, the division bench ruled in favour of employees and pensioners after the state government went against the single-bench order. The state government had then been directed to comply with the order by August 18.
