HC forms panel to look into ‘pay anomalies’ of public prosecutors

THE HIGH-POWERED COMMITTEE WILL BE HEADED BY THE HARYANA CHIEF SECRETARY

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday constituted a high-powered committee to look into the alleged pay anomalies of public prosecutors of the Haryana government.

The committee will be headed by the chief secretary with principal secretary (finance), additional chief secretary (home) and director, prosecution as its members.

The committee has been given six months to look into the grievance of the public prosecutors, said advocate Ravinder Malik, who had appeared on behalf of All Haryana Attorneys Association. Alleging anomalies in the pay structure, the association had moved the court seeking its intervention in February 2016.

In another development, the court has given ten days’ time to the Haryana government to clear its stand on the recruitment of public prosecutors. The HC bench of justice Rajan Gupta said that if proper instructions are not supplied to the additional advocate general Lokesh Sinhal, the state chief secretary would remain present on the next date of hearing on November 18.

During the hearing of a contempt petition filed by association through its president SK Bairagi, alleging government failure in recruitment despite court directions, Haryana Public Service Commission said the inordinate delay in complying with the directions to recruit public prosecutors had occurred as the government failed to supply copy of the high court order passed in July 2015. The copy was supplied after a lapse of 10 months.

The HC observed that it appeared that there had been considerable delay in complying with the court order which might amount to willful disobedience on part of the respondents. Besides, many candidates who became eligible in the meanwhile may not now get any opportunity to appear. It is on record that almost 137 posts of assistant district attorneys (ADAs) were advertised and the last date of receipt of application was in December 2015. Almost a year has lapsed since then. The candidates who may have become eligible in the meanwhile would thus be denied the opportunity to appear for the said exam, for no fault of theirs. It is evident that the file has been lying in the office of Haryana Public Service Commission apparently without any further action, the court observed. HTC