Indian Express: Chandigarh: Saturday, February 09, 2013.
A city based
RTI activist, Vivek Aditya, on Friday moved an application in the Punjab and
Haryana High Court to become an intervener in the ongoing arbitration fee case
against Jalandhar Division Commissioner S R Ladhar.
A division
bench comprising Chief Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain
allowed the application, while asking the state government and other
respondents to reply to the averments made by Aditya in his application.
In his
application, Aditya has alleged that Ladhar’s conduct in accepting arbitration
fees ‘is a direct fraud.’ He also enclosed several circulars issued by the
Union government, explaining that no officer can charge more than Rs 10,000 in
one financial year, on account of any work, even if done repeatedly, or where
nature of work also varied. “It is like stealing from government account,” he
added.
The bench
also directed the Union of India to explain the position on rates of
arbitration fee to be given to government officers like Ladhar, before February
27 the next date of hearing.
Moreover, the
high court, while directed Ladhar to deposit one-third of the arbitration fee
received by him, also impliedly restrained from withdrawing any arbitration fee
from “arbitrator’s account” for further arbitration work. This will, however,
be subject to further orders to by the high court.
H C Arora,
who had filed the petition against Ladhar, had vehemently argued that as per
Union government’s October 27, 2008 circular, Ladhar could charge arbitration
fee Rs 500 from government per day, for work of 4 hours or more.
He pleaded
that if this interpretation is applied to Ladhar’s case for instance to 639
cases decided by him vide one common order, for which he collected 26 lakhs as
arbitration fee Ladhar was not entitled to collect more than Rs 10,000. Arora
therefore, pleaded that Punjab Accountant General (Audit) be directed to work
out what Ladhar was entitled to.
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