Supreme Court Upholds Conviction of Former Chief Secretary in Contempt Case
GURMINDER Singh Kang, a former Chief Secretary of Bihar was convicted by the Patna High Court in a contempt case with simple imprisonment of two months apart from a fine of Rs.2000/-. This was for disobeying the order of the High Court with regard to the promotion of a State Government Employee.
The Chief Secretary claimed that he did not understand the spirit of the High Court order. But the Court was not impressed as he was a senior IAS officer and it was found that he had nearly 30 years of experience as an officer in the administrative service.
The Supreme Court in its order on 7th December 2012, observed,
Orders and judgments of the Court are meant to be obeyed and not to be disobeyed, with impunity. Of late, we come across several such instances, where high-level officers of the Administration display scant regard for the orders of the Court and always come forward with lame excuses. The case on hand is one such instance where the appellant who was a senior level I.A.S. Officer with not less than 30 years of experience in the State Administration came forward with a lame and flippant statement that he did not understand the implication of the order of the High Court which led him to pass such orders in total derogation of the directions contained in the orders of the High Court.
Taking into account the age of the appellant (Chief Secretary) as well as the remorse conduct now displayed before the Court, the Supreme Court imposed a "stern warning" and fine of Rs. 2000/- and the imprisonment for two months has been not retained.
Babus should learn to show a little more respect to the Judiciary and as the Supreme Court said, court orders are meant to be obeyed, not interpreted and disobeyed.