The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the West Bengal government to pay 25% of the pending Dearness Allowance (DA) to state government employees within four weeks.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India, on Friday, issued an important interim order directing the West Bengal government to pay 25 per cent of the pending Dearness Allowance (DA) to its state government employees within four weeks.
The order was passed by a two-judge bench comprising Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Manoj Misra. The matter will now be heard again in August.
Background
The DA issue has been a long-standing concern for Bengal government employees. Currently, state government employees in Bengal receive 18 per cent DA, after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee earlier announced a 4 per cent DA hike during her budget speech this year.
In comparison, central government employees receive 55 per cent DA, which is significantly higher.
Some employees working under the Bengal government had moved the Calcutta High Court, demanding that they should be paid DA at the same rate as the central government employees, and that their pending DA dues should also be cleared.
On May 20, 2022, the Calcutta High Court ruled in favour of the employees and ordered the state government “to pay DA at 31 per cent, equivalent to the central rate.”
The Bengal government challenged this High Court order in the Supreme Court. The case reached the apex court on November 28, 2022, but it saw multiple delays. Since December 1, 2024, the hearing in the matter was postponed 18 times.
On Friday, the Supreme Court finally passed an interim order and clearly stated that “there was no error in the high court’s ruling.“
It further directed the state government “to pay 25 per cent of the pending DA,” and mentioned that “the remaining to be addressed in the next hearing.”
With this interim order, the Supreme Court has made it clear that the West Bengal government is duty-bound to clear at least a part of the pending DA dues within four weeks. The rest of the pending amount will be discussed in the upcoming hearing, scheduled in August.
The Supreme Court’s direction has given partial relief to lakhs of state government employees who have been waiting for clarity on their DA arrears.
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