The Supreme Court on Friday issued an interim order directing the Bengal government to pay 25 per cent of the pending Dearness Allowance (DA) to state government employees within four weeks.
The order was issued by a bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Manoj Misra. The next hearing has been scheduled for August.
Bengal government employees receive 18 per cent DA after chief minister Mamata Banerjee had announced a 4 per cent DA increase during her state budget speech this year. Central government employees receive 55 per cent DA.
Some state government employees had filed a case in the Calcutta High Court demanding DA on a par with the central government’s rate and the clearance of pending DA. On May 20, 2022, the high court ordered the state to pay DA at 31 per cent, equivalent to the central rate.
The Bengal government challenged this order in the Supreme Court, The DA case had reached the Supreme Court on November 28, 2022. Since December 1, 2024, hearings were postponed 18 times.
On Friday, the apex court said that there was no error in the high court’s ruling. The state government has been told to pay 25 per cent of the pending DA, with the remaining to be addressed in the next hearing.