The Calcutta High Court gave a landmark verdict today in view of the ongoing case in Dearness Allowance demand case. The division bench of Justice Debasish Kargupta and Justice Sekhar Bobby Saraf clearly stated that DA is legally enforceable right.
This automatically negates the state Government approach that Dearness Allowance depends on the mercy of the state government. This is indeed a huge setback for the TMC government and can have bigger implication in near future.
Interestingly, the division bench of Justice Debasish Kargupta and Justice Sekhar Bobby Saraf categorically stated that the West Bengal government need to review the whole process of granting DA in terms of the price index and other economic parameters.
In fact,the bench asked the state government to give its official reply to the whole diktat in quick time and also urged the ones who applied to come up with their remarks.
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No doubt, the role of state administrative tribunal (SAT’) is under scrutiny right now. Sat previously gave the verdict that DA depends on the mercy of the state government and whether it wants to give or not, depends on them only. Whether the West Bengal employees are going to get DA in accordance with the central government is still not clear.
The SAT authorities need to come up with a clear-cut observation in this regard. Another allegation has come out in the open that West Bengal Government employees who are working in Delhi AND Chennai and getting DA in the central government rate. The Calcutta High Court bench has categorically urged the SAT to look into this matter.
The present situation automatically puts pressure upon the state government. Under the TMC government, the tendency has been to not give DA as per the rate of the central government.
As there are lakhs of state government employees right now, the government is not in a position to ignore it. Looking into Lok Sabha Elections scheduled next year, it remains to be seen how the state government will opt with its official line now.
