The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday pulled up the Punjab government over its failure to comply with directions concerning the payment of long-pending Dearness Allowance (DA) arrears to state government employees and pensioners.

The Chief Secretary appeared personally before the Court and was questioned over the government's failure to submit the compliance report by the August 31 deadline.

The State government submitted that it had approached the Supreme Court through a Special Leave Petition (SLP), seeking relief against the High Court's directions. However, the High Court noted that the SLP filed before the Supreme Court was defective, raising concerns over whether the move was being used to delay compliance with its orders.

While examining an affidavit filed by the Chief Secretary a day earlier, the Court found that the vakalatnama accompanying the Supreme Court petition had not even been signed, apart from other defects in the SLP.

Taking a serious view of the alleged non-compliance, the High Court issued a show-cause notice to the Chief Secretary, asking why criminal contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him.

The matter has been listed for further hearing on October 9.

The case was brought back before the High Court after employees sought action against officials for allegedly failing to comply with the Court's August 3 directions. Their counsel argued that the government had neither released the pending DA arrears within the stipulated period nor submitted the required compliance report.

Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia criticised the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government over the development, saying the “veil of falsehood was lifted.”

“The Bhagwant Mann government has stooped to such questionable tactics to avoid paying DA to its employees!” Majithia said.

The latest proceedings have put the Punjab government under renewed judicial scrutiny over the long-pending DA dues owed to its employees and pensioners.