The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued a notice for contempt against Alka Sharma, principal integrated financial adviser at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Major General Ashok Singh, the additional director general of personnel services.
The bench of Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan issued the notice Friday. The issue pertains to the matter of retirees of the rank of honorary naib subedars who were not paid interest on their pension arrears as directed by the
Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) in 2017.
After repeated non-compliance and non-appearance of the concerned officers, the Chandigarh bench of the AFT issued notice for contempt and arrest warrants against the officers. The MoD then approached the high court against the warrants and the contempt proceedings.
Recording the undertaking that the MoD would comply with the orders of AFT by August 30, 2023, a division bench had then directed that the warrants would be kept in abeyance in case the concerned officers filed an affidavit of compliance by personally appearing in the AFT on the date fixed.
Though the officers then appeared in the AFT, the compliance affidavit was not filed, and rather, on the application of one of the officers, Alka Sharma, the contempt case itself was later transferred from the Chandigarh bench to the principal bench in by the AFT chairperson.
The main petitioner, Honorary Naib Subedar Roop Lal, a senior citizen, approached the high court under contempt jurisdiction stating that the undertaking made before the division bench was flouted by the officers and that the contemnors by getting the case transferred to Delhi have succeeded to oust the jurisdiction of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had passed orders for compliance.
It has also been stated that the high court orders had regrettably not been taken note of by the AFT chairperson while transferring the case and that the orders of a constitutional court (high court) have been circumvented by an administrative order by the chairperson of a statutory tribunal, that too, without notice to the affected party.
The contempt petition has been filed by AS Narang, Rajesh Sehgal and Bhim Sen Sehgal, advocates for the petitioner.
