Supreme Court stays arrest of two IAS officers booked for not complying with Allahabad High Court order

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the arrest of two IAS officers who were taken into custody on Wednesday for not following an order of the Allahabad High Court..The two officers - Shahid Manzar Abbas Rizvi, Secretary (Finance) and Sarayu Prasad Mishra, Special Secretary (Finance) - were held liable for contempt of court after they failed to comply with an order of the High Court dated April 4 which directed them to execute within a week a proposed rule that would provide facilities to retired High Court judges in the State. A Bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha issued notice in the plea filed by the two officers against this order and called for their immediate release."Issue notice. Till next date of listing, there shall be stay of the orders of the division bench of the High Court dated April 4 and April 19. Officers of Uttar Pradesh government shall be released forthwith," the Court ordered..A Division Bench of Justices Suneet Kumar and Rajendra Kumar-IV had noted in the orders under challenge that the officials committed contempt of court by suppressing material facts. It thus ordered,"Accordingly, officers present in the Court, namely, Shri Shahid Manzar Abbas Rizvi, Secretary (Finance) U.P. Lucknow and Shri Sarayu Prasad Mishra, Special Secretary (Finance) are taken into custody. They shall be produced before the Court tomorrow, i.e., 20 April 2023, at 11:00 am for framing of charge. Issue bailable warrants to Chief Secretary, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, and Dr. Prashant Trivedi, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) U.P. Lucknow, through the concerned Chief Judicial Magistrate, to ensure their presence before this Court on 20 April 2023.".The High Court passed the directives while hearing a plea filed by the Association of Retired Supreme Court and High Court judges and another petitioner.On April 4, the Court had directed the State government to implement the proposed rule to expand facilities for retired High Court judges. The Court had also ordered that a previous order by the government issued on July 3, 2018 should be superseded. It had asked the finance department to approve the proposal.On April 18, an affidavit filed on behalf of the State informed the High Court that the April 4 order wasn't implemented.The Court took serious note of the non-compliance and observed that the approach of the finance department officers showed that they were opposing compliance with its order without any valid basis.