Chandigarh, Apr 12: The Punjab and Haryana high court has framed charges under Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, against Director General Health Services (DGHS), Haryana, Manish Bansal.
In fact the deliberate conduct and the obstructive behaviour of respondent being aimed at frustrating the real intent of the relief granted by the writ court, amounts to circumventing and manipulating the course of proceedings thereby resulting into its defiance so as to make the order ineffective,” the bench of justice Harkesh Manuja said while framing the charges.
He has been charged under Sections 10 (power of HC to initiate contempt proceedings) and 12 (punishment for the offence) of the 1971 Act.
As per lawyer of petitioners, Suman Verma and Busan Lal, both lab technicians, in April 2024 the high court directed to consider their case pertaining to their pay scales and disposed of the petition. However, as the matter was kept pending, they moved contempt petition in August 2024.
Meanwhile, the state’s appeal against a 2022 HC order on the issue of pay scale of these category of employees was dismissed by the apex court. But even then, the order remained non-complied with.
Compliance had to be made by Bansal through the finance department, Haryana, as per the lawyers. It is pertinent to mention here that one of the petitioners Suman Verma is a person with disabilities.
“The present is a clear-cut case where the respondents are acting in a highly discriminatory, arbitrary and selective manner and thereby, showing willful disrespect and disobedience towards the court order,” the bench observed, adding that the petitioners were to be granted the benefit of pay parity in terms of one Rajesh Kumar’s case decided in 2022, as the cases were identical.
However, authorities failed to do so even as petitioners had filed petitions themselves as well.
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