JAMMU, AUGUST 8: The UT Administration has come in for sharp criticism of the Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh High Court over its lackadaisical approach towards judicial proceedings and court orders, with the latter directing the Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, Principal Secretary Finance and Law Secretary among four contemnors to remain present in person before it on Thursday.
“If anyone of them does not comply with the direction for personal appearance on 08/08/2024, this court shall resort to coercive measures to secure their presence,’’ observed a division bench of the High Court comprising Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Javed Iqbal Wani. A copy of this order shall be given to the Advocate General office under signature of the Bench Secretary, the court said in its order dated August 5 while hearing counsels in a contempt petition seeking enforcement of its August 10, 2023 order directing the authorities to grant higher pay scales to the Chief Engineers and other higher ranking engineers than the one given to the Superintending Engineers as early as possible preferably within a period of three months.
On Monday morning, the Bench asked the Chief Secretary, Secretary Finance, Secretary General Administration Department and the Secretary PWD R&B to join the court proceedings through video conferencing at 2.30 pm. The directions were issued in order to obviate the inconvenience to them of personally appearing before this court to answer the charge of contempt, the Bench pointed out.
In the afternoon, while Secretary Finance and Secretary PWD joined the proceedings through video conferencing, Chief Secretary and Secretary GAD did not.
While the Secretary GAD was stated to be on leave, Advocate General D C Raina as per instructions received by him informed the Bench that Chief Secretary was desirous of joining the video conference, but delay was on account of connectivity issues.
However, trouble erupted when a short while later, Law Secretary Achal Sethi appeared through video conferencing and informed the court that Chief Secretary is unable to appear through video conferencing as he is busy in a meeting.
“As of now, this court is unable to ascertain as to who is lying, whether it is the person who informed the Ld. Advocate General that the Chief Secretary is keen to join the proceedings and shall do so in a few minutes, or whether it was the Law Secretary who was instructed to state incorrectly on behalf of the Chief Secretary. Both these versions are starkly disparate and in gross contradiction to each other,’’ the Bench observed.
Things got further compounded when counsels for the contemnors informed the Bench that a Special Leave Petititon (SLP) has been filed in the Supreme Court in June 2024 against the August 10, 2023 order of the High Court. On being questioned by the Bench about the delay of ten months in filing it, the Principal Secretary Finance informed the court that sanction to file SLP was granted in February 2024. On being pointed out that there has been a further delay of four months in filing the SLP even after the grant of sanction, Principal Secretary Finance expressed regrets saying that he will ascertain the cause for delay and affix responsibility.
However, when the Bench checked the website of the Supreme Court, it noticed that the SLP was filed on June 25 this year.
Pointing out that the Supreme Court’s Registry has identified seven defects in the SLP and till date not a single one has been cleared, the Bench comprising Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Javed Iqbal Wani observed that “from the manner the Union Territory Government has conducted itself, it is clear that there is absolute lack of sincerity of purpose on its part to comply with the order passed by this court’’.
“It reflects a sorry state of affairs that exists in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir with regard to judicial proceedings and judicial orders,’’ it said, adding that the number of contempt petitions pending before the High Court is a little over six thousand. “In other words, there are at least six thousand litigants in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir who despite having orders in their favour are unable to savour the benefit of these orders,’’ it added.
“In some cases, there may be more than one petitioner in a contempt petition which would raise the number of persons awaiting the benefit of this court’s orders, phenomenally above six thousand, the Bench further pointed out, adding that a few of these contempt matters are pending between 10 to 15 years and the cases pending between one to five years are the ones that run into thousands and has reduced the justice dispensation system in the UT to a cruel joke,’’ the Bench observed.
“This reflects a shocking scenario where the Executive is ignoring the orders passed by this Court with utter disdain, cocky that this court shall take no measures imperilling their liberty for their disobedience,’’ the Bench observed. “This environment has come to exist on account of the excessive latitude being shown by this Court, time and again, only to maintain a harmonious relationship between the judiciary and the executive,’’ it added.
Pointing out that a tradition existed where contemners were given repeated adjournments, a multitude of “statement of facts’’ and reports were called for resulting in contempt petitions pending for four to five years, the Bench observed “but traditions are what things were’’.
“If contempt cases are to linger on inordinately without compliance, the very existence of this Court is meaningless,’’ it said, adding the “couldn’t careless’’ attitude of the executive gives an impression to this Court that it has to resort to firm measures to ensure that orders passed by it and by other courts judicially inferior to the High Court, are complied with in the letter and spirit and are taken more seriously than the way it has been till date,’’ the Bench observed.
In order to restore a semblance of sanity by achieving compliance of its orders, this court has to take precipitate measures and shall not hesitate to do so, the Bench observed, adding that it is, however, recording these observations herein so that the UT and the bureaucracy is put on guard that what has been happening till now with the orders of this court shall no longer be tolerated. Once an order is passed, it shall be complied with in letter and spirit, stayed or set aside by a superior court or a larger bench or, the contemner be prepared to face the consequences for contempt of court, it added, directing the Chief Secretary, Secretary Finance, Secretary GAD and the Secretary PWD to appear in person before it on Thursday.
