Chandigarh Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) S S Srivastava today earned the wrath of the Punjab and Haryana High Court for not appearing despite repeated directions. Justice Rajan Gupta strongly disapproved of the SSP’s conduct in sending two Superintendents of Police in his place in spite of being informed to make a personal appearance well in advance.

“These two officers — SP (city) and SP (operation) — have attended court even though there was no need for them to be present while the one who was called is not present today. Under the circumstances, this court is left with no option but to issue a showcause notice as to why contempt proceedings not be issued against the SSP,” said Justice Gupta. The notices were, however, not issued as senior standing counsel for the UT Administration, Anupam Gupta, said the SSP was in Lucknow presently and assured the court that he would come for the next hearing.

The directions were issued in a case of bail filed by an accused. In September, Justice Gupta had ordered: “In case proper instructions are not supplied to state counsel by the next date of hearing, the Chandigarh SSP shall remain present in court.” Interestingly, neither any state counsel nor the SSP were present in court on October 8, as a result of which the court had asked the SSP to be present today.