DA case: Hearing deferred till March 15

KOLKATA: The Supreme Court on Monday informed that the hearing of the Dearness Allowance (DA) case has been postponed to March 15. It was supposed to be heard on Monday. The case will be heard by the Division Bench of Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Hrishikesh Roy. It has been reported that there was an error in the plea filed by the state in the DA case which is why the hearing has been postponed once again.

After Justice Dipankar Dutta recused himself from the case which was supposed to be heard in December, a new bench was formed for the case to be heard. The DA case has been repeatedly postponed. The case was initially scheduled to be heard on December 5. It was then postponed to December 14.

Later, a new Division Bench was formed with Justice Dutta but the case could not be held after he withdrew from the case. The Calcutta HC, last May, had set a three-month deadline for the state government employees to settle the dues. The deadline expired on August 19.The government employees had approached HC over the issue of DA. The state government wanted to file a petition for a review of the GC verdict but it was not accepted and instead a strict order was given to clear the DA dues. The state government challenged this order at the SC. The state argued that if the HC order is accepted, the DA will reportedly cost around forty-one thousand seventy hundred seventy crore rupees.