The Punjab Authorities on Tuesday approached the Supreme Courtroom in opposition to the Punjab and Haryana Excessive Courtroom’s August 3 order on Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Reduction (DR), whereas assuring that it’s keen to offer its staff wage parity with comparable Central Authorities staff by way of precise pay.
In its Particular Depart Petition (SLP), the Punjab Authorities submitted that the excessive courtroom’s path to clear the arrears totalling round Rs 14,191 crore in such a brief interval was “constitutionally not possible”.
The excessive courtroom had directed fee of the pending dues to all its staff and pensioners inside a fortnight at charges relevant for officers of the All India Providers serving within the state, along with easy curiosity at 6% every year within the occasion of default. It had directed Punjab’s Chief Secretary to file an affidavit of compliance by August 31.
Nonetheless, the state’s SLP filed by the Further Chief Secretary to Authorities of Punjab, Division of Finance, submitted that “Compliance shouldn’t be merely tough; it’s constitutionally not possible within the time allowed. Based on Article 266(3), no cash could also be appropriated from the Consolidated Fund of a state besides within the method offered by the Structure, and that method is Articles 202 to 206.”
The state paid DA to All India Providers officers on the central price as a result of they had been ruled by Union legislation and the state had no energy to find out their service circumstances, it submitted.
The Punjab Authorities contended that its guidelines didn’t mandate fee of DA on the price fastened by the Centre for its staff. The Punjab Civil Providers (Revised Pay) Guidelines, 2021, prescribe no particular index, components, price or interval for DA and depart the matter to the state authorities’s discretion, it stated.
Whereas urging the highest courtroom to put aside the excessive courtroom’s verdict, the Punjab Authorities sought restoration of its discretion to find out DA and the way and timing of fee of arrears to its staff and pensioners.
Pending closing disposal of its SLP, it requested the Supreme Courtroom to remain the “operation, execution and implementation” of the frequent closing judgment and order of the Division Bench of the Excessive Courtroom of Punjab and Haryana dated August 3.
It sought permission to proceed to disburse the admitted arrears by way of the Liquidation Plan dated February 18, 2025 in the course of the pendency of its SLP and a keep on all additional proceedings, together with any continuing for contempt or in execution, arising out of or in enforcement of the impugned judgment, in the course of the pendency of the SLP.
It stated that Punjab’s current DA price of 42 per cent already resulted in larger combination month-to-month emoluments than the corresponding Central classes in 5 of seven consultant classes cited by the federal government.
“In 5 of the seven classes, the Punjab worker already attracts extra on the current 42 per cent by between Rs 1,832 and Rs 17,852 a month; within the clerk and constable cadres, Punjab’s primary pay alone, Rs 38,600, exceeds all the Central combination of primary pay and DA at 60 per cent, particularly Rs 36,960,” the plea stated.
“The one two classes at current quick, superintendent by Rs 5,676 and police inspector by Rs 7,372, which the petitioner positioned on file in opposition to its personal curiosity, themselves transfer into surplus of Rs 4,800 and Rs 2,240,” it stated.
The state’s Cupboard had authorised a liquidation plan in February 2025 underneath which arrears of round Rs 14,191 crore had been to be paid in phases over 5 monetary years, the SLP submitted.
