Shimla, Aug 4 Taking serious note of non-compliance of orders, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has directed the Chief Secretary to attach the salary of the Education Secretary within two days for not paying heed to court orders.
A division bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Bipin C. Negi passed the order while hearing petitions of Neel Kamal Singh and Surinder Nath.
The petitioners pleaded that they are superannuated employees of private educational institutions that were taken over by the state government and are entitled for financial benefits like gratuity and leave encashment.
The court had ruled in their favour and directed the government to release consequential benefits to the petitioners. When the financial benefits were not released, they again approached the high court for the execution of orders. The execution petitions so filed were finally decided by the high court and the department concerned was directed to comply with the order.
But the respondents did not pay heed to the court orders despite sufficient opportunity given by the court. The Bench found that Education Secretary to the state government has failed to ensure implementation of the order despite granting opportunity. Therefore, the court took coercive measure for ensuring the implementation of its order.
The bench made it clear in its order that on persuasive request of a senior Additional Advocate General, appearing for the respondents, they are taking a lenient view and instead of directing the civil imprisonment or detention of the officer concerned, they are only directing attachment of the salary.
Hence, the salary of the Education Secretary has been ordered to be attached till further order. The Chief Secretary has been directed to ensure attachment of salary within two days positively.
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