HC slams defence authorities for not paying bills of advocates

Published on: 02 May 2023 at 03:59 PM

Published by: thefactnews

The Fact News Service

Chandigarh, May 2

Taking a serious note of non-payment of bills raised by an advocate who represents various units of the defence services, a Punjab and Haryana High Court bench Monday said it was contemplating imposing a cost of Rs 25 lakh on the defence authorities.

In his order, Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj also directed that Controller Defence Accounts (CDA), HQ, Western Command shall remain present in the court on the next date of hearing on May 26 along with the OIC (Legal), Armed Forces Tribunal, Legal Cell, HQ Western Command, Chandimandir.

“At the same time, taking into consideration the conduct of the respondent authorities I am of the tentative opinion that an exemplary cost of Rs 25 lakh ought to be imposed upon the respondent-authorities for their neglect and wilful delay in making payment to the petitioner-counsel,” the order read.