Hours after his swearing- in, Punjab and Haryana high court chief justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra categorically told lawyers that the court won’t be “browbeaten by any tactics” and will defend “oath of the Constitution”.
Objecting to the statements made by the counsels of employees and pensioners, the state’s counsel started addressing the court in a loud pitch. “This court would be governed by the rule of law and this institution will not be browbeaten by any kind of tactics. So, we will go strictly as per the law.
The remarks came during hearing of two applications filed by Punjab government employees and pensioners alleging that high court order of August 3 that mandated release of up-to-date dearness allowance (DA) by the state government within 14 days, has not been complied with. Earlier, appearing for an applicant, senior advocate, Chetan Mittal had submitted that the Punjab government is yet to file the compliance report as mandated by the high court on August 3.
We have taken the oath of the Constitution and we know how to preserve our oath and defend it,” the chief justice said.
The court, however, said it will hear these applications after going through the case file as same is yet to be perused and has posted the matter for hearing on September 10. It was on August 3, the bench presided over by the chief justice had directed Punjab government to release all up-to-date pending instalments of DA to all its employees and pensioners at the rates paid to the members of the All India Services (IAS/IPS/IFS) officers serving in the state on the central government pattern, within a fortnight.
