The Delhi High Court has held the chief secretary, special commissioner (Transport), and the secretary (Labour) of the Delhi Government guilty of contempt of court. The single-judge bench of Justice Rekha Pillai stated that these officials wilfully disobeyed orders passed by the division bench in December 2017 that directed them to raise the wages of the staff for the maintenance of buses plying in the national capital.
A Division Bench of the HC in its December 6, 2017, order directed the Delhi Government to amend the agreements entered into with private parties running private stage carriages in the national capital and increase the wages of the staff. The payment was directed to be made within four weeks of the order date.
The court was hearing three pleas moved by various private “concessionaires” seeking the initiation of contempt proceedings against the Delhi Government’s officials for wilful disobedience of the High Court’s orders.
The court noted that even though the government’s review petition and the special leave petition (SPL) filed in the supreme court against the order were dismissed, the division bench orders have not been implemented in their true sense. It added that the directions issued by the division bench were crystal clear and respondents (contemnors) were expected to amend the formula by determining the amounts payable to each cluster separately.
“In the light of the aforesaid, I am of the opinion that in the present case, all the four pre-conditions for holding the respondents guilty of contempt are made out. This moonshine defence taken by the respondents that there was no requirement to work the incremental increase separately for each cluster, s wholly misconceived and needs to be rejected,” the court stated. Following that, the court scheduled an argument on sentence on July 14, directing the officials to remain present at the hearing.
