Chandigarh, Oct. 31 -- The high court on Friday pulled up the Punjab government for failing to get appeals listed against the August 3 dearness allowance (DA) release order and asserted that while it is up to the state to take its financial decisions, statutory obligations cannot be made subject to a populist agenda.

"You may put up your hoarding on the moon or Mars, we are not concerned. But we have no doubt in our mind that so far as the fiscal priorities are concerned, that is the domain of the executive and the political leadership," a bench of justice Vinod S Bhardwaj and justice Ravinder Malik orally remarked while hearing a criminal contempt case against Punjab chief secretary KAP Sinha.

The court's observations came in response ...