PRAYAGRAJ: Taking serious note of disobedience of court order, Allahabad high court (HC) in a contempt proceedings passed an order of detention against Rajnish Chandra, special secretary in Uttar Pradesh’s department of social welfare, till rising of the court and a fine of Rs 2000 for non-compliance of the court order.
The detention order was passed by Justice Salil Kumar Rai on a contempt plea filed by retired assistant teacher Suman Devi who had alleged non-payment of her salary despite a court order of March 4. The high court observed, “The apology tendered by the special secretary does not persuade this court to discharge him from contempt as the said apology is not genuine and sincere.”
After the court order, Chandra was taken into custody by the court officer and remained in custody till 1pm. Passing the order, the high court did not accept the apology of Chandra, observing, “The act of the special secretary in trying to pass the buck and his role in preventing payment of salary to the applicant in terms of the order dated March 4, 2024 passed by this court shows that the apology tendered by the special secretary is not sincere and has been given only to avoid punishments in the proceedings.” The petitioner, Suman Devi, worked at Dr BR Ambedkar Shiksha Sadan, Abu Nagar, Fatehpur, and was to retire on April 10, 2022. She was accordingly given sessions benefit and was permitted to retire at the end of the session on March 31, 2023.
When Suman Devi was not paid her salary for the whole extended period of employment, she approached HC. The order allowed the prayer of the applicant and disposed of the writ petition with the direction that the petitioner shall be paid her salary from April 1, 2022 till the end of the session.
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