Himachal Pradesh High Court
Yukita Devi vs . U.O.I. & Others & Connected Matter on 19 October, 2022
Bench: Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Virender Singh
Yukita Devi Vs. U.O.I. & others & connected matter .
CWP No. 5243 of 2021 with CWP No. 5244 of 2021 19.10.2022 Present: Mr. Deepak Sharma, Advocate, proxy counsel, for the petitioner(s).
Mr. Rajinder Thakur, Central Government Standing Counsel, for respondent No. 1.
Mr. Rajinder Dogra, Senior Additional Advocate General with Mr. Vinod Thakur and Mr. Shiv Pal Manhans, Additional Advocate Generals and Mr. J.S. Guleria, Deputy Advocate General, for the respondents-State.
"On 14.09.2022, this Court passed the following order:-
"Learned Senior Additional Advocate General has placed on record instructions dated 13 th September, 2022, relevant portion whereof reads as under:-
"This is with reference to U.O No. EDN-H(18) LC-235/2021-UNA dated 30th August, 2022,which has been received alongwith copy of letter received from Under Secretary to the Govt of India, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Department of Social Justice & Empowerment on the subject CWP No. 5244 of 2021-Miss Tanvi Rehal Vs. Uol and Ors. In this regard,the copies of Utilization certificate of the previous years 2016-17 to 2020-21 which have already been submitted to the Govt. of India under the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for OBC are being enclosed herewith for perusal, information and necessary action at your end. The anticipated demand for academic year 2021-22 was Rs.1288.52 lakh and an ad-hoc grant of Rs.179.08 lakh was released by Govt. of India to the Govt. of Himachal Pradesh under Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for OBC/EBC/DNT students. The process for the releasing of scholarship under this scheme for the students of the academic 2021-22 is under process, however it is subject to receipt of clarification from the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Govt. of India as scheme guidelines were notified on May 05, 2022 and were made applicable w.e.f 2021-22 to 2025-26."::: Downloaded on - 20/10/2022 20:03:48 :::CIS
Learned Central Government Standing Counsel prays for and is granted three weeks time to obtain .
instructions.
List on 12th October, 2022."
Not only have the respondents failed to comply with the order, but what is more serious is the fact that the Under Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, has refused to accept/acknowledge the letter that had been addressed to him by the learned Central Government Standing Counsel and consequently the same has been returned by the postal authorities to the Counsel.
If this was not enough, the Under Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, has not even cared to respond to the mail that was sent by the learned Central Government Standing Counsel on 15.09.2022.
In such circumstances, let Under Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Scholarship Division, personally remain present before this Court on the next date of hearing along with the relevant records.
List on 19.10.2022".
2. In compliance to the aforesaid order, Mr. Daya Nand Kumar, Under Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is present in person and has filed an affidavit explaining the circumstances under which the order in question could not be complied with.
3. The explanation is accepted by the Court.
However, the concerned Officer is directed to be careful in ::: Downloaded on - 20/10/2022 20:03:48 :::CIS future, especially with regard to the compliance of the Court .
orders.
4. The personal presence of the Under Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is dispensed with.
5. Now that the Central Government has already directed the State government to distribute the scholarships for 2021-22 as per pre-revised guidelines, the state government is directed to distribute the scholarships on or before the next date of hearing.
List on 16.11.2022.
(Tarlok Singh Chauhan) Judge (Virender Singh) Judge October 19, 2022 (kalpana) ::: Downloaded on - 20/10/2022 20:03:48 :::CIS