Srinagar, May 12:
In a development that raises serious questions about administrative accountability and obedience to judicial directions, a contempt petition has reportedly been filed before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Srinagar Bench, against senior officials of the School Education Department, Kashmir, over the alleged non-implementation of a subsisting stay order passed by the Tribunal.
According to sources, the officials arrayed as respondents in the petition include the Secretary, School Education Department; Director School Education Kashmir; Personnel Officer, DSEK; Chief Education Officer, Ganderbal; Deputy Chief Education Officer, Ganderbal; and the Principal of Boys Higher Secondary School, Batwina, Ganderbal.
The controversy pertains to the deployment of a teacher, in respect of which the Tribunal had earlier granted interim protection by way of a stay. It is alleged that despite the continued operation of the Tribunal’s order, the respondents failed to give effect to the same, compelling the aggrieved party to invoke the contempt jurisdiction of the CAT Srinagar Bench.
The petition is understood to allege that the inaction of the concerned authorities amounts to non-compliance of binding judicial directions and strikes at the authority of the Tribunal. In service jurisprudence, such allegations assume significance because once an order of a competent judicial forum remains in force, its implementation is not a matter of discretion but of legal obligation.
Sources indicate that the proceedings are likely to draw considerable attention within the education department, particularly as the matter concerns the alleged disregard of a judicial stay by senior administrative functionaries. The case may now turn on whether the respondents are able to place on record any lawful justification for the alleged failure to honour the Tribunal’s directions.
Further developments are awaited as the CAT Srinagar Bench examines the allegations of non-compliance.
