Calcutta, April 16: The government has to provide permanent service to over 2,500 deed writers working in registration offices across Bengal within three months and pay around Rs 7 lakh in arrears to each of them.

The high court today ordered the government to give retrospective effect to the deed writers’ service from 1991, when they moved the court seeking government jobs.

“The government will now have to fix their pay scale,” said Pratip Chatterjee, the counsel for the West Bengal Copywriters’ Association.

Copywriters, who obtain a licence from the government to write deeds, charge 14 paise for every word.

The rate was fixed in 1978. The same year, the government appointed 1,120 deed writers and assured the others that they would be absorbed in phases. But that did not happen.

Thirteen years on, they moved court demanding permanent service. But the case was sent to the state administrative tribunal when it was formed later that year.

The tribunal said the writers had no right to claim per-manent jobs. They challenged the order in the high court.

An official said the government was likely to contest today’s order.