30-year-old policy only on paper, Punjab gets contempt notice

NEW DELHI: Observing that government officers cannot take the court for a ride and have to pay the price for not complying with its order, Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Punjab chief secretary seeking his response on why contempt proceedings be not initiated against him for failing to implement a three-decade-old pensionary benefits scheme in the state despite giving undertaking in court to do so.

A bench of Justices Abhay Oka and N Kotiswar Singh noted that the state had assured the Punjab High Court multiple times that it would enforce the scheme and refused to show leniency. "Officers need to be given a signal that they cannot take the court for a ride," the court said.

"In spite of repeated undertakings given to the high court, compliance has not been made by the state govt. Therefore, we issue showcause notice to K A P Sinha, chief secretary, State of Punjab calling upon him to showcause why action under the Contempt of Courts Act 1971 (both civil and criminal) should not be initiated against him," it said. SC said if the chief secretary feels some other officer is at fault then he can name the officer for the court to initiate action. Punjab's advocate general Gurminder Singh told SC the state would do something before the next date of hearing for implementing the Punjab Privately Managed Affiliated and Punjab Government Aided Colleges Pensionary Benefits Scheme, 1996.


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