Admonishing Punjab for its “defiant attitude” towards compliance with judicial directions on the payment of pending dearness allowance/dearness relief (DA/DR) to its employees and pensioners, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday directed the State Chief Secretary to remain physically present before it on November 3, the next date of hearing.The Chief Secretary has also been directed to file a personal affidavit by October 30, subject to payment of costs of Rs 1 lakh.The direction by Justice Harsh Bunger came on a contempt petition alleging wilful, deliberate, knowing and intentional violation of the court’s order directing the release of all pending instalments at the rates applicable to members of the All India Services serving in Punjab.“The facts and circumstances clearly reflect the defiant attitude adopted by the respondents with regard to compliance with the directions issued by this Court, which cannot be countenanced in law,” Justice Bunger asserted.As the matter came up for resumed hearing, Justice Bunger took note of senior counsel Sanjay Kaushal’s submission, on behalf of the petitioner, that a Division Bench had passed various orders granting repeated opportunities to the State of Punjab and the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) to avail themselves of the remedy of appeal before the Supreme Court. However, effective steps did not appear to have been taken.“It has also been pointed out that criminal contempt proceedings have been initiated against the Chief Secretary to the Government of Punjab in relation to the filing of a false affidavit, and the matter is pending before the Division Bench of this Court,” Justice Bunger observed.The petitioner was also represented by advocates Jattvibeny Singla, Riti Aggarwal and Arjun Kaushal.Referring to the facts of the case, the Bench noted that the contempt petition was last listed for hearing on August 21, when time was granted, at the request of the State counsel, to file a status/compliance report. However, no such report had been placed on record despite sufficient time having been granted for the purpose. The State counsel was seeking yet another extension to file the report, which the court termed “totally unjustified”.“Before proceeding further, the Chief Secretary to the Government of Punjab is directed to file his personal affidavit within three days from today as regards compliance with the directions issued by the writ court vide order dated April 8, as well as the directions issued by the Division Bench vide order dated August 3, and also explaining the stand of the State of Punjab in issuing directions, i.e. ‘no such orders may be implemented without prior concurrence of the FD (Finance Department) or unless generalised directions are issued, whichever is earlier’, contained in the memorandum dated August 17,” the Bench asserted.Before parting with the order, Justice Bunger directed the filing of the affidavit subject to the payment of costs of Rs 1 lakh, to be deposited in the High Court Lawyers Welfare Fund.What August 3 judgment heldThe dispute relates to a common judgment passed on April 8, directing the Punjab government to release Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) to its employees and pensioners at the same rates as those paid to members of the All India Services serving in Punjab, in accordance with the central government’s pattern.The judgment had directed the State to comply by June 30 and required the Chief Secretary to file an affidavit confirming compliance. Appeals were subsequently filed in the matter.The August 3 judgment was delivered by a Division Bench comprising Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor. The Bench dismissed the appeals filed by the State Government and PSPCL, thereby affirming the Single Judge’s directions, while modifying the implementation timeline because the original June 30 deadline had expired during the pendency of the appeals. The Bench directed the release of the pending DA/DR instalments within a fortnight.