M A I N   N E W S

SC fines Punjab Chief Secy

New Delhi, February 27
In a rare instance, the Supreme Court today made the Punjab Chief Secretary, Mr N.K. Arora, who as Principal Secretary to the Local Government Department had deprived a president of a municipality from assuming charge, to pay Rs 25,000 to the elected representative.

“The said secretary who is responsible for the violation of the statutory provisions and weakening the concept of rule of law is, therefore, personally liable to pay the costs from his own pockets,” a Division Bench comprising Mr Justice K.T. Thomas and Mr Justice R.P. Sethi said, directing the payment to be done within two months.

The apex court found the secretary had flouted all norms, violated statutory provisions and showed scant respect to the principles of law in depriving Mr Bhajan Singh, an elected representative of the people, from performing his duties as a member and the president of the Samrala Municipal Committee.

Counsel for Mr Bhajan Singh, Mr Nidhesh Gupta, had pointed out his client had been elected to the Samrala Municipal Committee in January 1998 and was elected president on April 6, 1998, but the authorities on one pretext or the other had not notified his election as president.

Mr Justice Sethi, writing the judgement for the Bench, said the Secretary did not take steps to notify the election of Mr Bhajan Singh as the president “obviously to oblige his political opponents who incidentally happened to belong to the ruling parties, this Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP.”

The Punjab and Haryana High Court, where Mr Bhajan Singh had filed a petition, had on May 1, 2000, directed the authorities to notify the name of the petitioner while imposing a cost of Rs 10,000 on the authorities.

However, the apex court said such costs should not be burdened on the state as the consequences followed from an individual’s illegal decisions.

“We find it a fit case to award exemplary costs and are of the firm view that such costs should not be burdened upon the state exchequer,” the Bench said.

Dismissing the appeal of the state government against the high court order, the Bench said, “We are at pain to note that by his acts of omission and commission the said secretary has consistently and persistently deprived Mr Bhajan Singh of the duty to assume and discharge his duties as member and president of the municipal committee despite his election from January 2, 1998, till date.

“The term of the office of the municipality is a fixed term out of which three years of Mr Bhajan Singh have been wasted in uncalled for and forced litigation upon him. No law can compensate the loss of opportunity provided to him for serving the people after his election as member and president of the municipality,” the Bench added. PTI