PRAYAGRAJ, May 27 -- The Allahabad high court has held Ghazipur district inspector of schools (DIOS) Prakash Singh guilty of contempt for failing to comply with a four-year-old interim order directing payment of an employee's salary.

Rejecting the state's plea to defer proceedings due to a pending stay vacation application, Justice Kshitij Shailendra delivered a strong defence of the rule of law and the dignity of the judiciary. Referring to the staggering pendency before constitutional courts, the court observed that courts cannot be expected to function as "super robots" while litigants treat active judicial orders as optional "decorative pieces of paper".

The contempt application arose from a writ petition filed in 2017 by Radhey Shy...