New Delhi, February 18: The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed its displeasure to the Centre for not obeying its orders and said it reflected the mindset of the officers not to respect the orders.
Justice Dalveer Bhandari, heading a Bench along with Justice Mukundakam Sharma, asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Vivek Tanka to bring it to the notice of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Cabinet Secretary the attitude of the Secretaries of the departments concerned not to obey court orders.
Mr. Justice Bhandari told Mr. Tanka: “We can issue contempt notice and ask the Secretary to come to the court. It is an unpleasant task of summoning an officer and we feel bad to do so as it will be wastage of time for the court. We are reluctant to pass any order. You yourself bring it to the notice of the Cabinet Secretary and, if necessary, to the Prime Minister to put the House in order.”
Acting on a petition filed by advocate Kranti on lack of rehabilitation measures to tsunami victims in the Andaman and Nicobar islands (A&N) even after six years, the court on January 19 directed a joint inspection by representatives of the appellant and the Centre. The court asked the Centre to provide facility for internal travel in the islands for carrying out inspection of the tsunami-affected areas.
On Thursday, senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the appellant submitted that since the word ‘air’ was inadvertently not included in the January 19 order, the Chief Secretary of the A&N islands had not made any arrangements for inspection by helicopter. Further, the Centre had also said that travel arrangements from Delhi to A&N islands would have to be made only by ship and not by air. If shipping schedule was to be followed, the visit to the islands would take about a month, Mr. Gonsalves said and wanted proper directions to be issued to the Centre. Mr. Justice Bhandari made it clear to the ASG that “if proper arrangements are not made in the island we may have to call the Chief Secretary [of A&N islands] and all the money must be recovered from him.”
-Agencies