The Calcutta High Court upheld a West Bengal Administrative Tribunal order on Friday, ordering the State government to release Dearness Allowance (DA) and Arrear Dearness Allowance to its employees within three months, as per the West Bengal Services (Revision of Pay and Allowance) Rules, 2009 (ROPA Rules, 2009).
“The petitioners are directed to release the Dearness Allowance and Arrear Dearness Allowance to its employees at the rate to be calculated on the basis of All India Consumer Price Index average 536(1982=100) commensurate with their pay as per the ROPA Rules, 2009 as directed by the Tribunal within three months from date,” ordered the bench comprising Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Rabindranath Samanta.
The Court emphasised that state government employees now have the legal right to receive Dearness Allowances at the rate calculated using the All India Consumer Price Index average 536 (1982=100). Stating further that the legal right to get Dearness Allowance as a way to sustain livelihood has been elevated as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution, the Court observed, “What we feel, apart from acquiring the enforceable legal right to get Dearness Allowance using the methodology of All India Consumer Price Index, such right of the employees to sustain their livelihood with human dignity has been fructified or elevated as fundamental right as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution.”
“Such right available to Government Employees who are the main workforce behind the functioning of a Government in right direction cannot be denied by the State. As observed by the Pay Commission, we are of the same view that to pay respect to the statutory rights of the Government Employees to get D.A Allowances at the rate as above, the Government must generate all its resources,” it added.