HC orders personal appearance of CS, 3 IAS officers in contempt case

Adil Akhzer

Srinagar, August 6

Taking a strong exception about the ‘sorry state of affairs’ that court said exists in J&K with regard to “judicial proceedings and judicial orders”, the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has ordered personal appearance of UT’s chief secretary Atal Dulloo and three top IAS officers on August 8 regarding a contempt case.

This is the second time in recent days when the high court has sought personnel appearance of IAS officers for ignoring the court orders.

While hearing a case related to pay scales engineers, in which the court had issued directions in September 2023, the division Bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Javed Iqbal Wani also slammed the J&K administration for the number of contempt petitions pending before the High Court.

“All the four contemnors herein are directed to remain present in person before this Court on the next date... If any of them does not comply with the direction for personal appearance, this Court shall resort to coercive measures to secure their presence,” the court said on Tuesday, while ordering the personal appearance of the Chief Secretary, Finance Secretary; Secretary, General Administration Department (GAD), and Secretary of the Public Works Department (PWD).

On Monday, during the contempt hearing, the court had directed the Chief Secretary and other three senior officers to join the proceedings through video conferencing to answer the charge of contempt.

While two IAS officers joined the video conferencing, and one was on leave, the court was informed that Chief Secretary “is unable to appear through video conferencing as he is busy in a meeting.”

During the hearing, the counsel for the "contemnors" informed the court that a special leave petition (SLP) has been filed in the Supreme Court in June 2024 against the principal order. The Bench then questioned the delay in filing the SLP.

Stating that “the manner in which the Union Territory government has conducted itself, it is clear that there is an absolute lack of sincerity of purpose on its part to comply with the order passed by this Court,” the court then lashed out the at the administration for the higher number of contempt petitions pending before the High Court, which it said “is a little over 6000.”

“A few of these contempt matters are pending between ten to fifteen years and the cases pending between one to five years are the ones that run into thousands and has reduced the justice dispensation system in the UT to a cruel joke,” the court said in the order.

The case has now been listed on Thursday.

Recently, the High court summoned Ganderbal Deputy Commissioner Shyambir, who has been accused of harassing a judge over a land acquisition case.