Hearing a batch of contempt petitions, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has come down hard on Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh for what it called ‘paper compliance’ with the Supreme Court’s directions in Arnesh Kumar and Satender Kumar Antil on avoiding unnecessary arrests. The Court rejected an illegible Chief Secretary affidavit, noted that Section 41A CrPC notices were being issued in the wrong format and even over WhatsApp, and summoned the SHOs of three police stations to appear with their actual records.
