Non-compliance of orders in 10 years old matter
*Such officers eroding public faith in judiciary
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 15: Expressing anguish over non-compliance of the orders in 10 years old matter, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Jammu Bench has issued orders for stopping the salary of Director Handicrafts Jammu and directed the Administrative Secretary of the department to hold enquiry and take strict action against Director for taking orders of the Tribunal casually.
Member Judicial of the CAT Jammu Rajinder Singh Dogra passed this order while dealing with matter relating to compassionate allowance, which was for the first time listed before the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir on March 23, 2015.
The High Court vide order dated March 23, 2015 issued notice to all the respondents including Director, Handicrafts.
When the matter came up for hearing yesterday, the CAT, observed, “vide order dated December 14 2023, respondents were directed to file the reply failing which the erring official was to be remain present before this Tribunal to explain as to why the reply was not filed”.
“The case was earlier listed on 06.03.2024 and neither the reply was filed nor the erring officer was present and the case was then listed on March 13, 2024 but again neither the reply was filed nor erring officer-Director Handicrafts Jammu was present before this Tribunal to explain as to why the reply was not filed till date”, the CAT observed, adding “on the request of Additional Advocate General the matter was passed over twice but still the erring officer– Director Handicrafts didn’t bother to appear virtually through video conferencing to explain as to why the reply was not filed”.
The Member Judicial of CAT said, “the matter is approximately 10 years old and reply has not been filed by the respondents as on today. The matter was adjourned to 14.03.2024 at the request of AAG but neither the reply was filed nor the Director, Handicrafts was present before the court today”.
Moreover, the Government took the U-turn by saying that no notice has been issued to the respondent department in time since the filing of this Writ Petition. “The notice issued by the High Court in its first order was not restricted to any specific department, rather it was issued to all the stakeholders and respondents were bound to file the reply”, the CAT said.
The case was thereafter listed a number of times and time was sought by the respondents but the reply was not filed. This plea was never raised by the Government Counsel, the CAT said, adding “the perusal of record reveals that case was listed several times– 23.05.2015, 09.03.2021, 26.03.2021, 14.09.2021 and subsequently it came to be listed today as well before this Tribunal and respondents didn’t bother to file reply till date”.
Taking serious note of this, the CAT directed the Drawing and Disbursing Officer (DDO) to ensure that the salary of Director Handicrafts, Jammu be stopped with immediate effect till further orders. Moreover, Secretary-cum-Commissioner, Handicrafts Department has been directed to hold enquiry and take strict action against the Director Handicrafts, Jammu for not complying the orders of the Tribunal.
It has been observed by the CAT that non-filing of the reply by the respondents leads to unnecessary delay in giving the justice to the litigants and justice delayed is justice denied.
“The poor litigants, who have no access to the administration, knock the door of this court in the hope that they will get justice here. He is running from pillar to post to get the justice. However, due to callous attitude of officers/officials, public faith in the judiciary is getting eroded”, the CAT said.
Stating that innocent litigants cannot be made to suffer for the lackadaisical approach of the respondents, the Tribunal has made it clear that nobody is above the law so in order to uphold the majesty of the law Tribunal was compelled to pass this order.
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