Tribunal head's pay not increased: contempt notice to Finance

The Delhi High Court today issued a contempt notice to the Finance Secretary of city government for not complying with its order to "immediately enhance" the salary of a retired Additional District Judge who is the presiding officer of two appellate tribunals.
Unhappy over non-compliance of its January 28 order despite repeated warnings, a bench of justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva issued the contempt notice and sought a response from the official by March 26, the next date of hearing.
The court had on March 12 pulled up Delhi government for non-compliance of its January 28 order and warned that it was "contemplating issuing of contempt notices".

The bench had, however, given them a week's time to ensure compliance of its order.
Today, the government informed the court that it required more time to ensure compliance of the January 28 order but the bench was not satisfied and issued the contempt notice.
The court had on January 28 termed as "thoroughly inadequate" a salary of Rs 35,915 the city government proposed to pay to retired ADJ V K Maheshwari, the presiding officer of Delhi Schools Tribunal (DST) and State Transport Appellate Tribunal (STAT).

It was hearing a plea filed on behalf of Maheshwari by advocate Sanjeev Ralli, in which it has been claimed that the Tribunal head had not been paid any salary since his appointment in May 1, 2014.

The petition had contended that no guidelines have been framed for laying down the terms and conditions of appointment to such posts and sought directions to the authorities to initiate and complete this process.
Subsequent to filing of the plea, on the directions of the court, the city government had arrived at a figure of Rs 35,915 to be paid to Maheshwari.
However, the court had termed the amount as inadequate and directed that it be "immediately enhanced".
Maheshwari, a retired officer of Delhi Higher Judicial Service, was appointed the presiding officer of DST for three years and later given the additional charge of STAT as well.