“Democratic Government can never be unjust.” That is what the desk books of political science tell us. The theory sounds musical but the taste of pudding lies in eating. Analyzing the actual functioning of the Government is the litmus test of Government’s intentions about administering justice to the people. What can one say if the High Court passes the stricture of “inhumane approach” against the Government while dealing with a case of contempt of court? This is not fiction but harsh reality.
In a petition filed before the Supreme Court under the title Jagdev Singh versus Union Home Secretary and Others, a Bench of the Apex Court directed the Centre and State Government in July 2006 to treat the Jammu migrants at par with the Kashmiri migrants and provide them relief after verifying their migrant status. Despite this, the State Government continued to adopt dilly-dallying tactics which compelled the National Panthers Party, which is espousing the cause of Jammu migrants, to file a contempt petition before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court directed the State High Court to address the contempt petition and deliver judgment as it deems proper. On November 11, 2009, the High Court had directed the State to pay arrears of relief to 994 identified families of Jammu migrants within a period of three months but despite lapse of six years, the order has not been complied with.
A number of families living in militancy infested areas of Jammu province had been forced by security reasons to leave their homes and hearths and migrate to safer areas for safety. They had pleaded for relief from the Government as per the norms adopted for the migrants from Kashmir valley. The court accepted that pleas but it was not digestible to the State Government which had forced these migrants to knock at the door of the court of law. When the court upheld their plea as just and genuine, it ordered that relief be paid to them in accordance with the norms established for other migrants. The Government began dilly-dallying and failed to honour the order of the court. This attitude was adopted by the Government despite an affidavit filed by it that 9.5 crore rupees had not been distributed among these migrants on account of arrears of relief.
While hearing the contempt petition, the Division Bench observed that the State Government was continuously getting unaccounted money under Security Related Expenditure but the arrears of relief were being denied to these 994 families identified by none else than the State Government that too on an affidavit filed before this court. The question is why the Government is reluctant to release the arrears of relief to these families who have been displaced under unusual circumstances. Moreover, it is worth noting that the expenditure on this account is debited to the security head and that is met by the Union Government and not the State Government. As such the State Government has no justification to withhold the arrears and at the same time remain indifferent to the plight of the migrants who are living in a tight position. The attitude of the Government smacks of regionalism and we depreciate that attitude. Instead of sympathizing with them in their hour of plight and displacement, the Government has no qualms of conscience in adding to their suffering. As if a long period of six years was not enough for the Government to decide whether it has the intention of paying the arrears of relief to Jammu migrants, the Advocate General pleaded for more time to come up with Government’s commitment. The Division Bench has granted four weeks time to the government for making payment of arrears to the migrants but has imposed the condition that the Government has to pay 9 per cent interest on the amount of arrears by way of punishment.
This case raises many questions, administrative, legal and humanitarian. We are at a loss to understand first on State Government pursuing a policy of discriminating people on regional or other basis. It is mockery of democratic and secular dispensation. Secondly, defiance of the Government in honouring the orders of the Apex Court as well as of the State High Court demonstrates the anarchical tendencies growing subtly in the bureaucratic and administrative structure of the State. Thirdly, it shows that the Government has not an iota of humanism in its policy. It is guided only by anti-democratic parameters of treating people with oppression and suppression.
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