Bengal seeks 6 addl months from SC to pay 25% of DA dues
Times of India | 28 June 2025
Kolkata: The Bengal govt on Friday filed a special leave petition (SLP) in Supreme Court praying for six more months to comply with its May 16 interim order directing the state to release 25% of dearness allowance (DA) arrears to its employees by June 27. In its SLP seeking modification of the SC's interim order, Bengal pointed out that the financial structure of Centre and states were different and that states depended largely on grant in aid from Centre for their financial resources. The Bengal govt also highlighted how Rs 1. 8 lakh crore dues from Centre had come in the way of its financial health.
Bengal said unlike other states, the beneficiaries of DA were not confined to state employees only. The Bengal govt grants DA to employees of state undertakings, state-aided institutions like schools and colleges and also to employees of local bodies, namely municipalities and panchayats. The Bengal govt said in its SLP that this additional liability was putting pressure on the state exchequer and pleaded that it required some more time to comply with the apex court order. Bengal has recently announced a 4% hike in DA for state employees, raising it to 18%. The raised amount, however, falls short of the central govt's 55% DA rate. Moloy Mukherjee, general secretary of Confederation of State Govt Employees, said it had sent a lawyer's notice to the chief secretary through email on Friday and would hand over a hard copy of the same to officials at the state secretariat on Monday. Mukherjee added that the confederation would file a contempt application against the state. Bengal's SLP, filed by the additional chief secretary, also challenged the impugned orders of Calcutta High Court stating that DA was a "discretionary" payment by an employer to an employee and could not be a matter of "compulsion". The state also challenged the linking of DA rate with the All India Cost Price Index.