High court summons Punjab chief secretary again over non-compliance of DA order, seeks status report
The High Court has asked the government to submit a report and scheduled the next hearing for Tuesday.
PTC News Desk: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has sought a status report from the Chief Secretary on the petition filed by the Punjab government in the Supreme Court regarding the pending Dearness Allowance (DA) of government employees.
During Monday’s hearing, Chief Secretary KAP Sinha appeared before the court. He informed the court that there were some objections in the petition filed in the Supreme Court, but those issues have now been resolved.
The High Court has asked the government to submit a report and scheduled the next hearing for Tuesday. The Chief Secretary will also have to appear before the court.
The High Court said it was clear that the Punjab government had not taken the necessary steps despite being given several opportunities to approach the Supreme Court.
The court noted that the Chief Secretary had been summoned during the previous hearing. He appeared before the court and submitted an affidavit.
After examining the affidavit, the Bench pointed out that Punjab had filed its appeal in the Supreme Court on September 1, while the hearing was taking place on October 5. However, the defects pointed out in the appeal had still not been corrected for more than a month.
The High Court said it had already adjourned the case three times to give the Punjab government enough time to pursue its case before the Supreme Court. The court had repeatedly made it clear that the state had the right to challenge the High Court's judgment before the Supreme Court.
However, the court observed that Punjab had still not been able to properly pursue the matter. The Supreme Court website also showed that the state's appeal was still under objections or defects.
The dispute relates to a High Court judgment passed on April 8. The court had directed the Punjab government to pay Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) to its employees and pensioners at the same rates as those given to All India Services employees serving in Punjab, in line with the Central Government's DA pattern.
The court had initially directed the government to comply by June 30 and asked the Chief Secretary to submit an affidavit confirming compliance. The government later filed appeals against the order.
On August 3, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor dismissed the appeals filed by the Punjab government and PSPCL and upheld the earlier directions.
Since the original June 30 deadline had already passed while the appeals were pending, the court changed the timeline and directed the government to release the pending DA and DR instalments within 15 days.