High Court Pulls Up Punjab Government's Top Officer Over Pending Arrears

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the Punjab government over its failure to comply with directions concerning payment of long-pending Dearness Allowance (DA) arrears to state government employees and pensioners.

The Chief Secretary, who appeared personally before the court, was questioned over the government's failure to submit the compliance report by the August 31 deadline.

The government argued that it had approached the Supreme Court by filing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) seeking relief. However, during the hearing, the High Court noted that the SLP filed before the Supreme Court was defective, raising serious questions over whether it was merely an attempt to delay compliance with the court's orders.

During scrutiny of the affidavit filed by the Chief Secretary a day earlier, the court found that the vakalatnama in the Supreme Court petition had not even been signed, apart from other defects in the SLP.

Taking a stern view of the matter, the High Court issued a show-cause notice to the Chief Secretary, asking why criminal contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him for alleged non-compliance with the court's directions.

The matter has now been listed for further hearing on October 9.

Taking a swipe at the Bhagwant Mann government, Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia said the "veil of falsehood was lifted".

"The Bhagwant Mann government has stooped to such questionable tactics to avoid paying DA to its employees!" Bikram Singh Majithia said.

The case was brought back before the High Court after employees sought action against officials for allegedly failing to comply with the court's August 3 directions. The employees' counsel argued that the government had neither released the pending DA arrears within the stipulated timeframe nor filed the required compliance report.

The latest development puts the Punjab government under renewed judicial scrutiny over the long-pending financial dues of its employees and pensioners.