Chandigarh, September 6: The Punjab Cabinet has convened an emergency meeting on Sunday following the notification confirming the appointment of Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra as the regular Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The meeting will be held through video conferencing, with all ministers reportedly asked to attend. As most ministers are not in Chandigarh, they have been directed to join from the offices of Deputy Commissioners in their respective districts.
The Cabinet is expected to discuss the appointment and consider whether a session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha should be convened to deliberate on the issue.
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Justice Mishra had been serving as the Acting Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court for the past few months. His appointment as the regular Chief Justice was recently notified by the Central Government following a recommendation by the Supreme Court Collegium.
The Punjab Government had not given its assent to Justice Mishra’s appointment as regular Chief Justice. Despite this, the Centre went ahead with the appointment on the Collegium’s recommendation.
The development assumes significance in the wake of a recent judgment delivered by a Bench headed by Justice Mishra in the dearness allowance (DA) case.
Last month, the Bench directed the Punjab Government to release pending DA to its employees. The decision is estimated to put a burden of around Rs 14,100 crore on the financially strained state and has triggered protests by government employees.
The government’s opposition to Justice Mishra’s appointment also comes amid earlier political criticism of the Collegium’s recommendation.
On August 9, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal had taken to social media to allege that seniority was being overlooked in the appointment of the regular Chief Justice.
The emergency Cabinet meeting is expected to determine the Punjab Government’s next course of action on the issue.
