When high ranking functionaries do not respond to the orders of the High Court to submit status reports/compliance reports or action taken reports to the High Court in the context of Public Interest Litigation within the stipulated time, they are indirectly manoeuvring for delay of justice, obviously to serve their vested interests. The Constitution of India says that the verdict of the Supreme Court is a law as good as any clause of the Constitution. This one simple and unambiguous power conferred by the Constitution upon the Supreme Court makes it clear what the fathers of Indian constitution meant. In fact it is the people of India who vest such a powerful authority in the Supreme Court. The entire administrative structure comes within the ambit of the authority of the Supreme Court. The fact is that vesting of such powers in the Supreme Court is indicative of the principle of checks and balances. The Supreme Court with the corpus of powers enjoyed by it is a powerful method which restricts the State from doing something not in favour of the people. This is apart from the golden principle of political science that the State can do no harm. The case in point is that in a number of PIL cases, the court asks the Departmental heads or the Chief Executives to submit status reports or action take reports only to facilitate investigation and prosecution of the cases under PIL. How can a court proceed unless it has a picture that depicts both sides of the coin? By not responding to the orders of the court, the concerned departmental heads and other functionaries feel as if the departments are their private fiefs and they enjoy the monopoly of administration over it. More disturbing is that when the Secretary of General Department issues clear instructions to all the Departmental heads, Deputy Commissioners and others to comply with the instructions of the court, and yet the concerned fail to respond, it is a situation in which the court can intervene despite it unwillingness not to interfere in the administration. One fails to understand why such responsible officials invested with vast authority should become so irresponsible and unconcerned with what matters the state most and that is law and order. A state is run by the law and if the officers who are supposed to enforce the law themselves break the law and undermine the functioning of the organs of the State, it is a serious situation. This has compelled the court to issue a warning to the defaulting officials that they can be called to attend the court hearing in person and explain why they fail to respond to its instructions. The High Court imposed ban on polythene products and bags as these are highly injurious to health and asked the Deputy Commissioners to submit the action taken report within a stipulated time. Most of them failed to do so. In other words in all probability they never enforced the orders of the court and as such are not in a position to submit the status report. Things cannot go like that. A state has to run in accordance with the established law and the defaulters should be ready to face the consequences of breaking the law.
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