Chandigarh, September 7
More than a year after the Punjab and Haryana High Court made clear its intent to fast-track the cases involving sitting and erstwhile parliamentarians and legislators of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, it today warned the two states regarding the imposition of heavy costs if compliance reports of its previous orders were not submitted.
The Bench of Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Alok Jain also made it clear that the costs would be imposed upon the officials responsible to file the affidavit/status report and would be recovered from his/her salary.
The direction came after the Bench asserted compliance report by way of an affidavit had not been submitted by Haryana and Punjab within the stipulated time. “This is a fit case where heavy cost should be imposed upon the respondents. But keeping in view the fact that last opportunity has been prayed for, we adjourn the case to September 29.”
The Bench had earlier sought information on the stage of trial, along with status of each case, including the witnesses examined and remaining. The Bench was hearing suo motu the matter “In Re: Special Courts for MPs/MLAs” for monitoring the progress of cases pending against the MP/MLAs.
