The bench had earlier directed the government to pay the arrears within a period of 3 months, but no positive response has been achieved from that end. The State Administrative Tribunal had also given the similar decision that was upheld by the High Court. The DA has been projected by the Higher judicial forums as the fundamental rights of every employee.
The West Bengal Government’s review petition for reconsideration of the earlier judgment o the Calcutta High Court pertaining to payment of Dearness Allowance in accordance with the West Bengal Services (Revision of Pay and Allowance) Rules, 2009, that shall bring parity in the salary with that of the Central government employees has been rejected by a bench consisting of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Rabindranath Samanta.
The bench had earlier directed the government to pay the arrears within a period of 3 months, but no positive response has been achieved from that end. The State Administrative Tribunal had also given the similar decision that was upheld by the High Court. The DA has been projected by the Higher judicial forums as the fundamental rights of every employee.
The review petition was filed on grounds that the Counsel for the State had technically forgotten to mention about several orders of the West Bengal Government that were issued by the finance department and released DA in installments for the period of April 1, 2008 to January 1, 2019. The bench upheld that in the light of the wider interest of the employees of the state government, the mistakes based on which the State Government filed the review petition is of “inconsequential import” and therefore the petition was not maintainable as it lacked merit.
The Confederation of State Government employees had also filed an application against the Chief Secretary of the Government of West Bengal, Mr. H.K. Dwivedi and the Finance Secretary, Mr. Manoj Pant and the Court has granted them time till November 4 to mention by means of an affidavit as to why contempt proceedings shall not be moved by them. A petition pertaining to the Contempt of Court has also been filed by the Confederation because the State government has missed the deadline to pay arrears in DA in August.
The next date for the contempt petition is November, 9. The Government has put forward the issue of fiscal health of West Bengal that has kept their hands tied, while the oppositions have raised issue against the 60,000 rupees worth of funding that has been granted for every club organizing the Durga Puja, when they cannot pay the DA to the employees to which they are rightly entitled.
The State Government also plans to file a Special Leave Petition (SLP) before the Supreme Court, against the decision where the Review petition was not maintainable.Till now only 3 percent DA has been disbursed after the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission in the state and if the State intends to clear the entire arrears and pay the DA, the entire burden can touch close to 20,000 crores. It is only a matter of time when further folds in the DA saga unfurls with a SLP before the Supreme Court, the last of the resort for the West Bengal Government for now.
Source: http://bwlegalworld.businessworld.in/article/Calcutta-HC-Rejects-West-Bengal-Govt-s-Plea-Praying-For-Reconsideration-Of-Its-Decision-On-Dearness-Allowance/27-09-2022-448250
