The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to take up a fresh petition challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order initiating criminal contempt of court proceedings against the Punjab Chief Secretary in connection with payment of dearness allowance arrears to employees.On behalf of Punjab Additional Chief Secretary senior advocate Vikas Singh submitted before a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana that it was not at all a case of criminal contempt of court.Singh said the present government has received around Rs 13,000 crore legacy arrears from the previous dispensation and the Chief Secretary had been made to attend to the high court on almost a regular basis.The CJI told Singh that the petition will be listed on Thursday before another Bench which was seized of a similar petition.On April 8, a single-judge Bench of the high court quashed the liquidation plan on payment of dues and directed payment of all “arrears/ pending instalments” by June 30 at rates applicable to IAS/ IPS/ IFS officers.In a fresh plea, Punjab Additional Chief Secretary has challenged the high court’s October 12 order asking the Chief Secretary to ‘show cause’ by October 30 why criminal contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him.The high court proceedings originated from miscellaneous applications filed in a writ petition and a letters patent appeal (LPA) that had already been finally disposed of, the petition submitted.The applicants had sought action over alleged non-compliance with the court’s earlier judgment, even though the original petitioners had already initiated separate civil contempt proceedings on the same issue, it stated.