kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the state government to clear the dearness allowance (DA) of the government employees within three months as per West Bengal Services (Revision of Pay and Allowance) Rules, 2009 (ROPA Rules, 2009).
The division bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Rabindranath Samanta upheld the 2019 order of the state administrative tribunal (SAT) in this regard and reiterated that "DA is a legal right".
Firdous Samim, advocate of the petitioners said: "The division bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Rabindranath Samanta have said that DA is a legal right of the government employees. The court has upheld the order of the SAT which was passed on July 26, 2019 while rejecting the writ petition of the state government. The court has ordered that the DA would have to be cleared within the next three months."
President of the Sarkari Karmachari Parishad Debasish Seal termed the judgement as historical and said: "We have been fighting for DA since 2016 and we are happy that today the Calcutta High Court has upheld the judgement of SAT."
Moloy Mukherjee, general secretary of the Confederation of State Government Employees, said that they are filing a caveat at the Supreme Court anticipating that the state government may move the apex court challenging the order.
It may be noted that a Division Bench back in 2018 had ruled that the Dearness Allowance (DA) recommended by West Bengal's 5th Pay Commission is a "legally enforceable right" of employees serving under the Government of West Bengal.