Punjab and Haryana HC Orders Salary Withholding of 2 Top Officials for Non-Compliance with Court Order

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Punjab government to withhold the salaries of the heads of its education and finance departments until they comply with the court’s order to grant “service benefits” to a group of teachers who had filed a petition over a decade ago.

The teachers had initially filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking benefits related to their previous service in government-aided schools when their salaries were being calculated upon joining government schools, as informed by advocate Alka Chatrath on Friday.

Despite a court order in their favor issued in 2018, the petitioners were not provided with the entitled benefits. Justice Rajbir Sehrawat expressed dissatisfaction with the respondents’ lack of action, stating, “This Court cannot countenance this kind of slackness on the part of the respondents; and the time of the court cannot be wasted for such unjustified reasons. Therefore, coercive directions have become imperative in the case.”

The court’s order specified that the payment of salaries to the principal secretaries in Punjab’s education and finance departments “shall remain stopped until the compliance of the order.” This directive was issued during the hearing of a contempt of court plea filed by Anil Kumar and others.

Following the original petition filed over a decade ago, a single-judge bench of the high court had directed the Punjab government and the concerned departments in 2018 to adjust the teachers’ pay in accordance with prescribed rules and grant them the necessary consequential benefits.

However, the state authorities failed to adhere to the court orders, as noted by advocate Alka Chatrath, who represents the petitioners. The contempt plea informed the court that the 2018 order had been challenged in a subsequent plea, which was dismissed by a division bench of the high court in September of the previous year.

Despite the dismissal, the state authorities took the matter to the Supreme Court, where their special leave petition (SLP) was also dismissed in April of the current year. Despite these dismissals, the order issued by the high court was not implemented.

The state counsel claimed in August that they were in the process of complying with the order, but as of December 5, no progress had been made.

The next hearing for the matter is scheduled for February 21, 2024.