New Delhi, Nov 4 The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to list for hearing a fresh plea challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court's decision to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Punjab's chief secretary in a case related to payment of pending dearness allowance and dearness relief dues to employees.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana took note of submissions of senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the additional chief secretary of the Punjab government, that the chief secretary is made to attend to high court on almost regular basis.
Singh said that the present state government has received around Rs 13,000 crore legacy arrears from the previous dispensation.
The CJI said that the plea will be listed on Thursday before another bench which is seized of a similar petition.
A single-judge bench of the high court, on April 8, had quashed the liquidation plan on payment of dues and directed payment of all "arrears/ pending instalments" by June 30 at rates applicable to IAS/ IPS/ IFS officers.
The additional chief secretary, in the fresh plea, has challenged the high court's October 12 order issuing notice of motion to the chief secretary to show cause why criminal contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him.
The notice was made returnable on October 30.
The petition said that the high court proceedings originated from miscellaneous applications filed in a writ petition and a letters patent appeal (LPA) that had already been finally disposed of.
It said that the applicants had sought action over alleged non-compliance with the court's earlier judgment, even though the original petitioners had already initiated separate civil contempt proceedings on the same issue.
