Government acting like a private party: Delhi High Court chides Centre for non-payment of benefits to CRPF personnel

The Central government, which is expected to be a fair litigant, is acting more or less like a private party, the Delhi High Court said in a contempt case related to non-payment of benefits to Armed Forces personnel..Justice Subramonium Prasad made the comment while hearing a contempt plea filed by a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) inspector posted in Chhattisgarh. The petitioner had contended that despite an order from the High Court in favour of himself and 23 other personnel, they were not given incremental benefits by the respondents..When the matter came up for hearing, the Court was informed by the Centre that the previous order had been complied with. However, Justice Prasad stated,“It is disheartening to note that the respondents proceeded for compliance of the order dated January 7, 2022 for the petitioner herein only after the instant contempt petition was filed. The government which is expected to be a fair litigant is acting more or less like a private party.”.The Court underscored that it was well-settled that if a person approaches court and gets an order in his favour, the government was expected to ensure that the benefit is extended to identically situated persons without their having to move court.Each petitioner in the case, who had been successful in getting an order in his favour, was “being forced to approach” the Court by filing a separate contempt petition, the order stated.“This attitude of the Government is deprecated,” highlighted the Court..It was on record that the High Court had, on March 23 this year, directed the respondents to ensure that an order of January 7, 2022 was complied with in relation to all the petitioners.“Despite the said order passed by this Court, each petitioner… is being forced to file contempt petition for compliance of the (January 7) order passed by this Court,” the order said.On January 7, 2022, a Division Bench of the High Court referred to a 2019 matter related to a similar issue and directed the respondents to grant the same relief to the present petitioner and 22 others, as they were identically placed.In the May 2 order, Justice Prasad said,“This Court is disposing of the instant contempt petition taking into account the fact that no grievance subsists qua the petitioner herein. List on May 31, 2022, for compliance qua the other petitioners.”It was clarified that if the order was still not complied with in respect of the rest of the petitioners, the officer concerned will be summoned to court on the next hearing..Advocate KK Sharma represented all the petitioners. Advocates Ruchir Mishra, Mukesh Kumar and Saurabh Bhushan represented the Central government..[Read Order]