The apex court halted criminal contempt proceedings regarding unpaid dearness allowance and dearness relief arrears for state employees and pensioners.
The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed criminal contempt proceedings initiated by the Punjab and Haryana High Court against Punjab Chief Secretary KAP Sinha and other officials, according to reports by The Economic Times and Deccan Herald. The proceedings concerned the state government's failure to pay outstanding dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) to government employees and pensioners.
The High Court had previously ordered the Punjab government to release these arrears at the same rates applied to IAS, IPS, and IFS officers. The contempt matter arose after the state failed to follow an August 3 order to implement these payments in line with the Central government pattern.
A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan also restrained coercive steps in the civil contempt proceedings. The court asked the Punjab government to specify how much of the outstanding DA/DR arrears it can disburse by March 31, 2027.
During the hearing, the bench questioned the accountability of government servants and noted that employees are a privileged class compared to the unorganised sector. The justices remarked that if government employees were more sincere, litigation in the country would decrease.
The court also addressed claims by petitioner Manjit Singh Randhawa that the Chief Secretary had communicated that court orders did not require compliance. The bench observed that such internal communications should not be used for arm-twisting in contempt cases.
