The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday observed that the Court will not be browbeaten by any kind of tactics and will defend the oath of the Constitution.
The comment by Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra was made during the hearing of applications related to pending Dearness Allowance (DA) of Punjab government employees and pensioners.
Justice Mishra, who today took oath as the Chief Justice amid a brewing controversy over the Punjab government's opposition to his elevation, was sitting on a division bench along with Justice Rohit Kapoor when he made the observation.
"This Court would be governed by the rule of law and this institution will not be browbeaten by any kind of tactics. So therefore, we will go strictly as per the law. We have taken the oath of the Constitution and we know how to preserve our oath and defend it," Chief Justice Mishra said.
The Court said it will neither be influenced by the submissions of the petitioners nor the government.
"Either side, don't comment! You may have a lot of things to say or do, we will go by law. We have taken the oath of the Constitution," Justice Mishra said.
In August, the Bench had directed the Punjab government to release up-to-date pending installments of dearness allowance/dearness relief (DA/DR) to all its employees and pensioners by August 31.
The Court had also ordered Punjab not to resort to any unproductive expenditures such as large-scale advertising campaigns in print or social media, till these dues are cleared. The decision has been challenged before the Supreme Court by Punjab government
Today, two applications related to the ruling were listed before the High Court. It was alleged that the government was yet to comply with the timeline ordered by the Court .
Senior Advocate Chetan Mittal appeared for an applicant who said that the government was yet to file a compliance affidavit as ordered by the Court.
However, the Bench at the outset said that it would hear the matter later this week as it had not gone through the case file yesterday.
Senior Advocate Sanjay Kausal, also representing an applicant, submitted that the government has filed an appeal before the Supreme Court after August 31 but was yet to remove the defects raised by the top court registry.
Kaushal added that full-page advertisements were still being issued by the State government across different States of India. He also said that crores of rupees were released by the Punjab government for women on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.
When a Punjab government counsel objected to these submissions, the Court reiterated that it was not inclined to hear the matter today and listed it for consideration on Thursday. However, the Bench made it clear that it would not be influenced by any pressure tactics.