Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 6: In a petition filed by Secretaries of Chief Justice and Judges of the High Court seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the respondents for non implementation of judgment holding them entitled to grades equivalent to KAS, Division Bench of State High Court comprising Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Sanjeev Kumar today observed that officers of the State Government have developed the habit of taking the orders of court in a casual manner and without attaching any sanctity.
When the petition came-up for hearing, Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi appearing for the petitioners submitted that explicit directions issued by the Division Bench have not been complied with even though the order has been upheld by the Supreme Court.
On the other hand, Senior AAG H A Siddiqui invited attention of the court to the directions passed by the Single Judge and submitted that there was confusion in the mind of the respondents as to whether the directions issued by the Single Judge or those of Division Bench have to be complied with.
After hearing both the sides, the DB observed, “the directions of this court are explicit in nature and the posts have to be upgraded from the date of eligibility of the appellants. Therefore, there is no scope of mis-interpretation or confusion of the order passed by this court”.
“It is also pertinent to mention here that the judgment dated December 17, 2015 has been upheld by the Supreme Court as the Special Leave Petition (SLP) preferred by the State Government was dismissed on April 12, 2016”, the DB said, adding “despite dismissal of SLP for a period of more than one and a half years, the State Government has complied with the directions issued by this Court partially only”.
“This court had directed the respondents to remain present. However, instead of remaining present, Chief Secretary alone has filed an application seeking exemption from personal appearance, for which we do not find any satisfactory explanation”, the DB said, adding “Finance Secretary and Law Secretary are neither present in the court nor they have filed any application seeking exemption from personal appearance. It appears that the officers of the State Government have developed the habit of taking the orders of this court in a casual manner and without attaching any sanctity”.
Accordingly, Division Bench directed respondents to comply with the directions passed in judgment dated December 17, 2015 within a period of two weeks from today failing which bailable warrants will be issued to secure the presence of respondents.
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