CHANDIGARH: The AAP led Punjab government has challenged the Punjab and Haryana High Court order directing it to release all pending dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) dues to state employees and pensioners within a fortnight in the Supreme Court, contending that the direction to pay arrears totaling around Rs 14,191 crore in such a short period was constitutionally impossible.
The move comes after around four lakh state employees went on mass leave on August 27 to push for immediate clearance of pending DA and other demands, in a strike that affected public services. The employees have decided to hold district-level gatherings on September 6, followed by a state-wide mass leave on September 8.
On September 12 and 13, employees will stage demonstrations outside the residences of ministers. A symbolic “Employees’ Assembly” will be set-up in Chandigarh on September 30 and employees will invite all 117 MLAs and 13 MPs to attend. Seats will be arranged for them, and they will be questioned directly on issues concerning employees and pensioners.
A massive rally has also been scheduled in Sangrur on October 10. Employees will go on mass casual leave again on October 21 and 22. The unions also unveiled a campaign titled “Return of the Chief Minister from Chandigarh Secretariat to Village Satoj”, symbolising their demand to push the Chief Minister out of the Secretariat until their demands are met.
A special leave petition has been filed by the additional chief secretary (Finance) challenging the August 3 judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which directed payment of the pending dues at rates applicable for officers of the All India Services serving in the state.
``Compliance is not merely difficult; it is constitutionally impossible in the time allowed. According to Article 266(3), no money may be appropriated from the consolidated fund of a state except in the manner provided by the Constitution, and that manner is Articles 202 to 206," the plea stated.
The state government in the plea before the apex court argued that its rules do not mandate payment of dearness allowance (DA) to state employees at the rate fixed by the Central Government for its employees and added that the Punjab Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2021, prescribe no specific index, formula, rate or interval for DA and leave the matter to the state government's discretion.
The government has challenged the high court's reliance on the DA paid to All India Services officers as a comparator for determining the entitlement of state employees and argued that the state pays DA to All India Services officers at the central rate because they are governed by Union law and the state has no power to determine their service conditions.
The plea also stated that Punjab's existing DA rate of 42 per cent already results in higher aggregate monthly emoluments than the corresponding Central categories in five of seven representative categories cited by the government. In five of the seven categories, the Punjab employee already draws more at the existing 42 per cent by between Rs 1,832 and Rs 17,852 a month; in the clerk and constable cadres, Punjab's basic pay alone, Rs 38,600, exceeds the entire Central aggregate of basic pay and DA at 60 per cent, namely Rs 36,960.
The only two categories at present short, superintendent by Rs 5,676 and police inspector by Rs 7,372, which the petitioner placed on record against its own interest, themselves move into surplus of Rs 4,800 and Rs 2,240, ‘’ the plea added. It also contended that the high court's direction to release the entire admitted arrears within 14 days cannot be implemented without following the constitutional procedure for withdrawal of money from the consolidated fund of the state.
The plea also challenges the high court's direction restraining the state from incurring unproductive expenditure, arguing that no such expenditure was pleaded or supported by evidence before the court. The apex court has been urged to set aside the high court’s order and restore its discretion to determine DA and the manner and timing of payment of arrears. It was stated that the state cabinet had approved a liquidation plan in February last year under which arrears of around Rs 14,191 crore were to be paid in phases over five financial years.
Anticipating that the Punjab government may challenge the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order directing it to clear pending DA dues within two weeks, state government employees and pensioners have filed a caveat in the Supreme Court to ensure they are heard before any interim relief is granted. The caveat was filed on August 5 in the case of Raghbir Singh versus Additional Chief Secretary to Government of Punjab.
Advocate Abhishek Gupta filed the caveat on behalf of the employees. In another related development on August 31 the state government had transferred Sukhchain Singh Khera, president of the Punjab Government Employees Association from the administrative branch of the Punjab Civil Secretariat to the planning branch in Sector 33. Khera a prominent leader of the Punjab Sanjha Mulazam Manch had spearheaded the state-wide one-day mass leave protest last week.
