If judges in this country can be appointed by the government in 24 hours, why can’t they show the same alacrity in complying with court orders, asked Supreme Court Thursday, as it sent a strong message to authorities for reluctance to abide by its directives. “If you (government) can have judges appointed… in 24 hours, you can also comply with our orders in 48 hours but here you have taken two years and still counting,” said a bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and Arun Mishra.
It underlined that once an order has been passed, it must be complied with. “When we pass an order, you cannot sit in appeal. You cannot say you have become wiser after our orders and need to examine it again,” said the bench. It said the government may choose to act “dodgy” over implementing orders but the court knows how to get them implemented. “Nobody else needs to feel strained… Leave it to the court, which has passed the order, to also take care of its implementation,” added the bench. The top court made the observations as it took notice of the government’s delay in implementing its directions on providing promotional avenues and financial upgradation to the employees of the Song and Drama Division (SandDD). The SandDD is a media unit under the I&B Ministry that propagates various policy programmes and schemes of the Centre through live media. By a proposal dated April 9, 2014, the dispute over promotions and grade pay was held to be amicably resolved between the parties by the apex court, which asked the ministry to accord benefits to the employees. The court was hearing an appeal by the ministry against a Delhi High Court order. The high court had in 2008 granted four weeks to the ministry to grant benefits to the SandDD employees. Even as the dispute was said to be resolved, the government kept asking for more time from the Supreme Court to implement the directives relating to grade pay and arrears. Aggrieved, the SandDD employees moved a contempt plea, alleging non-compliance by the ministry.
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