Six years after Punjab and Haryana High Court sentenced IAS officer Mr. Shivdular Singh Dhillon (2008 batch) and Bathinda Food Controller Mr. Jaspreet Singh Kahlon with “till the rising of the court” for contempt related to the high-profile ‘Atta-Dal Scheme’, it has accepted the officers’ unconditional apology and set aside the earlier orders. The ‘Atta-Dal Scheme’ metamorphosed into the ‘Amritsar food-grain distribution scam’ in 2017 in which disciplinary proceedings were initiated against 22 officials.
The Bench, consisting of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Sudeepti Sharma, noted that the delay in executing the court’s directives, as explained in a previous affidavit, reflects a common pattern of the state government shifting files between departments. This practice often forces litigants to file contempt petitions.
The court proceeded to criticize the state for unnecessarily seeking legal opinions, which only caused further delays, despite clear and straightforward court orders that did not require review or appeal.
“In this case, the affidavit outlining the delay indicates that the file was passed from one person to another, showing it was unnecessarily moved for legal compliance opinions. This behaviour constitutes contempt,” the court observed.
The Bench also mentioned that the appellants had submitted an unconditional apology on February 9, 2017, and again in an affidavit dated April 20, 2017. “Therefore, we find merit in the current appeal and set aside the orders dated February 1, 2017, and February 12, 2018, issued by the Single Judge, while accepting the appellants’ apology,” the court concluded.
