Chandigarh: Accusing Punjab govt of “playing hide and seek” over dearness allowance (DA), Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday summoned the chief secretary to be present on Tuesday and directed the HC registry to immediately get a status report from Supreme Court on the status of govt’s appeal ‘as of 10.30am on Oct 5’.




“We are at our wits’ end to comprehend what is actually intended by the state of Punjab by playing hide and seek with the court,” the division bench of Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor said.




HC is hearing applications concerning compliance with its Aug 3, 2026, order to Punjab govt to release pending DA to Punjab govt employees and pensioners — at the same rates as members of All India Services serving within the state — within a fortnight. It asked the chief secretary to ensure “scrupulous compliance” and file a compliance report by Aug 31, 2026.




Punjab govt subsequently informed HC that the state had moved Supreme Court on Sept 1, 2026, but that the appeal was “lying in defect”. On Sept 10, HC had adjourned the matter by 10 days to enable the state to get the defects removed so that the appeal could be listed before the apex court. HC also observed that it respected the state’s right to pursue an appeal, but “that right must be exercised fairly and the proceedings cannot be adjourned indefinitely for the purpose.”




HC had stated earlier: “As we find that prima facie, our orders have not been complied with, and no affidavit of compliance has been filed by the Punjab chief secretary, we direct the CS to remain present before the court on Oct 5, 2026, unless the state is able to secure protection from Supreme Court.”




The chief secretary was present in HC on Monday and said that the state had refiled the petition in SC after removing the defects, and it was “likely to be listed as per procedure.”




HC took the affidavit on record but pointed out that more than a month had passed since the state filed its SLP yet the defect pointed out in the appeal has not been cured. The bench noted that the SC website, with reference to the diary number allotted to the state’s appeal, “apparently suggests that the case is lying under defect(s).”




“If the appeal had already been filed on Sept 1, 2026, before SC, it could have been heard by now. It appears that the attempt is only to buy time in the garb of pursuing a legal remedy,” the bench said. It also recorded that the senior counsel for the applicants said that “hundreds and thousands of crores are being disbursed by the state for other purposes, while rightful claims of retired and serving employees of State are being brazenly violated.”




During the proceedings, the state Advocate General said that the defects had been cured and the appeal pending before SC was now in order. The applicants denied this statement.




At this, HC observed, “In the event a false statement is made before the court, then the party making such statement would have to bear the consequences.”