E-Paper
Not jailing him, only attaching salary: Himachal HC after education secy fails to comply with orders
Taking serious note of non-compliance with its orders, the High Court of Himachal Pradesh has directed the chief secretary of Himachal Pradesh to attach the salary of the secretary (education) within two days. The petitioners approached the HC with the plea that they are superannuated employees of the privately run educational institutions, taken over by the Himachal Pradesh government and are entitled for financial benefits like gratuity and leave encashment.
Taking serious note of non-compliance with its orders, the High Court of Himachal Pradesh has directed the chief secretary of Himachal Pradesh to attach the salary of the secretary (education) within two days.
A Division Bench, comprising Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Bipin C Negi, passed this order on two different petitions filed by Neel Kamal Singh and Surinder Nath.
Abhishek Jain is the current education secretary to the state of Himachal Pradesh.
The petitioners approached the High Court with the plea that they are superannuated employees of the privately run educational institutions, taken over by the Himachal Pradesh government and are entitled for financial benefits like gratuity and leave encashment. The court ruled in favour of the petitioners and directed the state government to release consequential benefits to the petitioners. When the financial benefits were not released in favour of the petitioners despite the court verdict, they again approached the High Court for the execution of court orders.
The execution petitions so filed were finally decided by the high court and the concerned department was directed to comply with the court order but the respondents did not pay heed to court orders despite sufficient opportunity afforded by the court.
Today, senior additional advocate general submits that the matter is pending consideration, before the concerned secretary and therefore he seeks further time for compliance, said the court.
Considering the entire facts and circumstances, recorded herein-in-above, the court observed, it is apparent that the secretary (education) has failed to ensure the implementation of the order passed by the court despite granting several dates.
“Therefore, we are constrained to take coercive measures for ensuring the implementation of the order,” said the court.
“On the persuasive request of the senior additional advocate general, we are taking a lenient view and instead of directing the civil imprisonment/detention of the concerned officer, we are only directing attachment of salary,” the court said.
Accordingly, it is directed that the salary of respondent No.1 the secretary (education) be attached till further order. The chief secretary was directed to ensure the attachment of salary within two days. Similar observations were made in the other execution petition of Neel Kamal Singh. The matters have been posted for the next hearing on August 9.
