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Bijay Kumar Sinha & Others vs Tripurari Sharan & Others

Diary No. · 2022 INSC 63Decided 18 Jan 2022
Diary No. 13110 of 2021
L. Nageswara Rao · B.R. Gavai

Background

A group of employees who had worked in various Corporations in the undivided State of Bihar (before it split into Bihar and Jharkhand in 2000) had long fought for their earlier service to be counted for pension and retirement benefits. Similarly-placed employees allotted to Jharkhand had already won this benefit through the Jharkhand High Court, and the Supreme Court had upheld that in 2017. The Patna High Court granted the same relief to the Bihar-side employees in 2017, and the Supreme Court dismissed the State of Bihar's challenge to that ruling in March 2020, directing that all benefits be paid within six months. When Bihar failed to comply, the Court in February 2021 gave it another three months, and later one more month, to actually pay employees exactly what similarly-placed Jharkhand employees had received. The petitioners then filed this fresh contempt petition alleging the State still had not complied.

Decision Breakdown

The Court rejected Bihar's argument that a September 2020 Government Resolution had already satisfied the Court's orders, noting this claim had already been considered and rejected in the Court's earlier February 2021 order. Examining the sequence of prior orders, the Court found the State's continued non-compliance with its clear directions (from March 2020 and February 2021) to be "wilful and deliberate," amounting to prima facie contempt of court. It directed the responsible state officials (respondent-contemnors) to personally appear before the Court to show cause why they should not be held guilty of contempt and punished, while noting that actual compliance in the meantime would affect any eventual punishment.

Lesson Learnt

Repeatedly failing to comply with a court's clear, unambiguous directions, even after being granted successive extensions, can expose government officials personally to contempt proceedings and punishment, not just further litigation.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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