You cannot challenge judgment through tweets: P&H High Court raps Punjab government in DA case

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday said the Punjab government was misrepresenting facts about the filing of its appeal before the Supreme Court against the High Court's recent order for payment of pending Dearness Allowance (DA) to the State employees.

On August 3, the High Court had directed the State to release all up-to-date pending installments of Dearness Allowance/Dearness Relief (DA/DR) to all its employees and pensioners, respectively, at the same rates as has been paid to the All India Services (IAS/IPS/IFS) officers serving within Punjab.

The judgment, which also bars the government from resorting to any unproductive expenditures such as large-scale advertising campaigns in print or social media till non-payment of the dues, has been challenged by the State before the Supreme Court.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor today noted that State's Special Leave Petition (SLP) continues to remain in defects before the Supreme Court registry for over a month.

It noted that despite repeated opportunities, the State has failed to clear the defects. The Court said the State was only buying time and not clearing the defects.

"It is always your right to challenge the judgment in Supreme Court but if you have faith in the Constitution and in the Constitutional scheme, then you cannot simply say 'we will not implement the order, we will not file the appeal' and a novel method of challenging judgment through tweets and social media. [If] this is what you are going to do, we are not going to appreciate," the Court said.

Chief Justice Mishra added that the State was inviting some harsh action from the Court.

"We are not here against one government or the other. We are here in defence of retired people. They are your people, they are retired employees. They are waiting for dues for years together," the Bench said.

Today, the High Court was hearing applications highlighting the State government's failure to comply with the August 3 verdict. One of the directions required the Chief Secretary to file a compliance report by August 31.

Chief Secretary KP Sinha was present before the Court today and submitted that another SLP has been filed before the the top court to challenge the High Court verdict.

However, the Court asked why the State had yet to clear the defects raised by the top court registry.

"If you are not doing it, you are forcing us to take harsher measures. It is either that you are playing to some design or some scheme, we don't know because there is no reason why, despite three occasions, you have not got your appeal [cleared for listing]," the Bench said.

The Court then asked its staff to look for the status of the appeal on the Supreme Court website. It also asked Advocate General Maninderjit Singh Bedi whether the State was looking for the Court to take action against the Chief Secretary for making false statements on affidavit.

"Mr. Advocate General, what kind of advice are you giving to your Chief Secretary," the Bench said.

After it was told that only an e-filing had been done, the Court directed its registry to seek a status report from the Supreme Court registry about the SLP filed by the Punjab government.

"Enough of hide and seek has happened already," the Court added, before adjourning the matter till Tuesday.

In the order passed today, the Court said,

"This is an unusual matter... to what extent a State can go in misrepresenting the facts before the Court is apparent before us. "

The Court also said it was at its "wits end" in trying to comprehend the intentions of the Punjab government.

"It appears that the attempt is only to buy time in the garb of pursuing legal remedy before the Supreme Court," it added.