The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction over the issue of non-implementation of its verdicts by authorities concerned and called on the SC administration to work to ensure implementation of its rulings on public interest litigations (PILs).
It also directed the administration to file contempt of court charges against officials found to be obstructing implementation of the court orders.Though the SC had issued a verdict on a PIL filed by a group of advocates, including Chandra Kanta Gyawali, seeking order to the government and the House of Representatives to promulgate a legislation on the welfare of senior citizens, a few months ago, its full text was released on Thursday.
The SC had issued a mandamus in favour of the petitioner.
Judges Badri Kumar Basnet and Pawan Kumar Ojha have, in the full text, stated that it is the responsibility of the state to secure the rights of senior citizens.
The bench seriously expressed concerned over the non-implementation of the verdicts by government authorities, including the Prime Ministers Office and Cabinet, the Ministry of Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare.
It is an inherent authority of the apex court to issue orders to the government and it would only be a paper tiger if the authorities concerned do not follow such orders, the verdict said. It has also cited some instances where the authorities concerned have flatly ignored the orders.Eight years ago the SC had issued directives to the government to issue 49 per cent shares of Gorkhapatra Sansthan and the Rastriya Samachar Samiti to the public. However, this order has been ignored as it is yet to be implemented, the judgement said.
The SC had in several instances ordered the government to promulgate laws on several issues but in vain, the verdict said.
The bench maintained that implementation of PIL cases and regular cases are different issues because in regular cases the district court is the implementing agency but no such authority is designated to ensure implementation of PIL cases.
It is the responsibility of the SC itself to ensure implementation of the verdicts on PIL cases, the judgement read.
The bench also directed its registrar to collect all directives issued by the apex court and forward the list to the Monitoring Department (MD) of the Supreme Court, which in turn, would write to the authority concerned seeking its implementation.
The bench also told the MD to take explanations from officials concerned on why they did not implement the court directives and proceed with contempt of court charges or departmental action against those ignoring the orders.
The bench has also directed its registrar to make public all steps taken against the violators of SC directives and publish them in the SC annual report.
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