DA dues row: SC to hear Punjab govt plea challenging criminal contempt notice to chief secy

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 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.

The CJI said that the plea will be listed on Thursday before another bench which is seized of a similar petition. (HT File)

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 the high court on an almost regular basis.

Singh said that the present state government has received around ₹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, an order upheld by the division bench in August.

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 contempt proceedings against the chief secretary, KAP Sinha, stem from the HC’s August 3 ruling, which ordered the state to release the pending DA instalments to employees and pensioners on par with the central government rates paid to All India Services (IAS/IPS/IFS) officers within a fortnight.

The government failed to meet the deadline and filed an appeal in the Supreme Court on September 1. The apex court is yet to hear the matter as the state government dilly-dallied on clearing the defects flagged by the top court’s registry.

One more contempt petition is pending in HC, filed on August 21 by employees and pensioners after the government failed to adhere to the DA release deadline of August 18. On September 27, the court fined the chief secretary ₹1 lakh and summoned him for the next hearing.

The one that has reached apex court is against KAP Sinha, initiated after a bench found that his claim regarding listing of matter before the SC were proven to be “false” after it commissioned report from SC registry about the status of the case.

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.