Pay 119% dearness allowance to employees, retirees: Punjab and Haryana High Court to govt

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Punjab Government to implement the enhanced dearness allowance (DA) of 119 per cent for all employees and retirees retrospectively from January 1, 2016, in accordance with the government’s decision to revise the pay scale.

The ruling came in response to a bunch of 32 petitions seeking revision of DA from 113 per cent to 119 per cent. The petitioners argued that the government had accepted the DA increase to 119 per cent from July 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015, but it failed to extend the consequential pensionary benefits.

Agreeing with the petitioners, the court rejected the government’s contention that the DA was capped at 113 per cent post-December 31, 2015, as per a notification issued in September 2021.

In a detailed order, Justice Harsimran Singh Sethi noted that the state government in its decision dated May 24, 2023, had enhanced the DA to 119 per cent for the specified period and the same should logically extend beyond December 31, 2015.

The court asserted that DA was linked to inflation and there was no justification for reducing it to 113 per cent after December 2015. “The dearness allowance remains the same even on January 1, 2016. It cannot be said that from July 2015 to December 2015, the DA was 119 per cent, but from January 1, 2016, the same will be reduced to 113 per cent,” the court observed.

Referring to the anomaly, Justice Sethi held that once the pay commission’s recommendation for 119 per cent DA had been accepted, it was required to be uniformly applied, including for the computation of pension as per the September 2021 notification. Failure to do so would create inconsistency in the pension calculation for employees retiring post-January 1, 2016.

“The petitioners are entitled to revision of their pay by granting the benefit of dearness allowance at the rate of 119 per cent, instead of 113 per cent,” the court noted.

Before parting with the judgment, Justice Sethi directed the state to re-compute the pay and pensionary benefits of the petitioners and similarly situated retirees, applying 119 per cent DA rate. The revised pension, along with arrears, was directed to be extended to the employees within four months.