The State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) has recently dismissed the review petition which was related to Dearness Allowance (DA) of the Government of Bengal. In this petition, the SAT was asked to reconsider the order which stated that state employees are entitled to equal DA of central employees.
The government of West Bengal has filed a petition against this order, & said that in this adverse situation of Coronavirus crisis, the treasury has been affected, so the decision should be reconsidered.
It is to be noted that SAT disagreed on this argument and other arguments as well in the state government’s petition. It said that there is no basis for the petition and therefore, it is quashed. The Bengal government can now take the matter to the Calcutta High Court or the Supreme Court. But, the payment of DA dues is a long pending demand of state government employees.
There is a big difference of 21% in the dearness allowance received by the Mamta government employees and central employees. The tribunal clarified that the instructions provided by the High Court to pay DA to government employees will be restored.
Also, on last year 26, the SAT has issued an order which stated that state government employees are entitled to get DA on equal pay to central government employees, and the state government has to pay all dues to its employees. It added that like the Central Government, the DA of the State Government should be decided on the basis of the Consumer Price Index.
