Just over a fortnight after the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued notice of motion to Punjab Chief Secretary KAP Sinha, to explain why criminal contempt proceedings be not initiated against him in the dearness allowance case, the IAS officer has tendered an “unconditional and unqualified apology”.
“It is humbly submitted that the deponent had not deliberately stated any fact or made any statement before this court with intent to mislead,” Sinha stated in his affidavit. He also “solemnly” undertook to “always act with the utmost diligence”.
The affidavit follows the high court’s October 6 order observing that the statement made by the Chief Secretary in his earlier affidavit was “palpably false” before asking him to explain why criminal contempt proceedings should not be initiated.
The bench was initially told that defects in its appeal before the Supreme Court in the matter had been cured. But a report obtained by the high court from the Supreme Court Registry “clearly” depicted that the defects had not been removed. “From the report of the Registry of the Supreme Court, it is apparent that a false statement was made before the court,” the bench had observed.
Explaining the circumstances in which he made the earlier statement, Sinha said he had “bonafidely” stated the fact regarding the SLP’s re-filing in the affidavit dated October 5 on the basis of the “documents and available information”.
Sinha added he was not aware about the “technical nitty-gritty of the filing system of the SLP and the curing off the defects”. The Chief Secretary added that he was bound by the high court and the Supreme Court orders and could not even think of disobeying the same.
“It is submitted that the State intends to avail the available legal as well as constitutional remedy before the Supreme Court. However, in case State fails to get favourable order from the Supreme Court, the State is always bound to fully comply the orders dated August 3 and pay the dearness allowance to the employees as well as to the pensioners along with interest at 6 per cent as directed by the high court,” he added.
The affidavit is scheduled to come up for consideration before the division bench of Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj and Justice Ravinder Malik on October 30, when the matter will come up for hearing. The matter was initially being heard by the division bench of Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor. But it was directed to be placed before the bench hearing contempt matters in accordance with the roster.
The petitioners and applicants were represented in the matter by senior advocates Sanjay Kaushal and Chetan Mittal, along with advocates Gagneshwar Walia and Hargun Sethi. Punjab was represented by senior advocates Vikas Singh and Chanchal K Singla, along with advocate Ferry Sofat.
Before parting with the case, the bench had observed that the court was duty-bound to ensure that its majesty was not compromised. “This court is enjoined with the task of ensuring that the majesty of the court is not compromised in any manner. Even suggestions questioning the propriety in conduct of court proceedings must be dealt with carefully. In these circumstances and having regard to the assertions made in the applications filed for initiation of contempt proceedings and the submission advanced on behalf of the parties, we deem it appropriate to direct that the present matter be placed before the bench having jurisdiction to deal with cases of criminal contempt as per roster after obtaining necessary orders on the administrative side,” the bench had asserted.
