New Delhi: The Supreme Court said on Monday it will lay down the broad guidelines to be followed by courts across the country while summoning government officials.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said there must be different sets of procedure to deal with contempt proceedings arising out of non-compliance of final judgements and the interim orders passed in pending cases.
In pending cases, the affidavits of officials may serve the purpose, while in contempt cases, arising out of non-compliance of court orders, the presence of government officials concerned may be necessary, the bench said.
“We will lay down some guidelines for summoning of government officers. There must be bifurcation of matters pending and the ones in which adjudication is complete. For pending (cases), summoning officers is not needed but once adjudication is complete then contempt steps in,” it said.
While reserving its order on framing the guidelines for summoning government officials, the bench said it will set aside the two orders of the Allahabad High Court which had led to the arrest of two secretaries of the Uttar Pradesh government’s finance department.
The officials were taken into custody on the orders of the Allahabad High Court in a contempt case.
As the proceedings commenced, the bench took note of the draft standard operating procedures (SOPs) submitted by the Centre on the issue and observed that some of them cannot be acted upon.
“We have gone through the draft SOP. It is more in relation with as to how judicial review powers should be exercised,” it said.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said even he will not press for some of them (the proposed SOPs).
However, the law officer said if an appeal by the government and its officials are filed against orders summoning them in contempt cases, then the court below should wait for the final outcome on the appeal before proceeding with the case.
The bench then said it will frame a “broad” SOP on
the issue.