‘Bordering on contempt’: High court summons Punjab Justice secretary after govt seeks to recall order on Malerkotla judges’ housing

A division bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry termed the state’s recall application “scandalous” and said the sole ground which appears to be taken by Punjab is the building committee resolution passed on September 2, which accepted the proposal of the state to build permanent houses for district and sessions judges, including courtrooms, within one year.

Chief Justice Nagu said the court had already taken cognisance of this resolution in the September 12 order that Punjab was seeking to recall.

What the Sept 12 order said

On September 12, the bench recorded an affidavit filed by the Punjab Justice Department acknowledging that no suitable accommodation existed for judicial officers at Malerkotla, despite the district being carved out in June 2021 and a sessions division formally notified in August 2023. While the High Court’s Building Committee resolved on September 2 that permanent courtrooms and residences would be constructed within a year, it also noted that executive officers’ houses could be diverted if the deadline was missed.

Taking note of Punjab’s “repeated failure to provide infrastructure”, the court held that it was “compelled” to order that the guest house presently occupied by the DC and the residence of the SSP be vacated forthwith for use by the district and sessions judge.

State seeks recall, cites housing plan

Appearing for Punjab on Tuesday, Advocate General M S Bedi argued that the state had since earmarked 13.60 kanals of land for judicial housing and submitted detailed plans to the Building Committee on September 23. He pleaded that construction of permanent residences would take at least a year and that the September 12 order overlooked the committee’s view that executive officers’ accommodation should be used only as a “last resort”.

Rebuking Punjab for defiance, Chief Justice Nagu said, “The September 2 resolution was already taken into account before the September 12 order was passed. The state has no business going behind that judicial order.”

The judges also questioned Punjab’s priorities. “It has been 14 years since Pathankot was declared a district, and still no permanent houses exist for judicial officers. If you cannot provide even basic infrastructure, why did you notify a sessions division at all? Withdraw the notification then,” the bench remarked.

To this, Punjab standing counsel Salil Sabhlok hastened to clarify that the Punjab government had taken a large number of houses on rent and did not own all the accommodation allotted to officers.

Punjab plea ‘scandalous’

The counsel for the High Court, Gaurav Chopra, assailed Punjab’s application as “scandalous,” and “bordering on contempt”, pointing out that it suggested the High Court, on its judicial side, could not intervene once the Building Committee had taken up the matter. “The Building Committee only assists the court; it cannot override judicial orders,” he said.

Chopra and the petitioner’s counsel added that even though Malerkotla district came into existence in 2021, it was only after the PIL was filed that the state had moved to create a sessions division, and even today no sessions judge has been posted at Malerkotla due to a lack of accommodation.

The petitioner rued that the common man had to travel long distances from places such as Amargarh to even pay traffic fines due to poor judicial infrastructure.

Contempt warning

Rejecting the state’s plea, the bench said: “You are bound to comply with the orders of this court. Instead of compliance, you have filed an application questioning our jurisdiction. This will not be tolerated.”

It then directed the Punjab Justice Department secretary to explain on Wednesday why contempt proceedings should not be initiated.