E-Paper
Punjab: Legal team examining DA order, says Cheema
“The government remains committed to paying all legally and constitutionally valid dues, but key judicial precedents may have been overlooked in the current ruling,” said Cheema at a press conference in Chandigarh
The Punjab government is legally examining the high court’s order asking it to clear all pending Dearness Allowance (DA) arrears of its employees and pensioners, state finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema said on Tuesday.
“The government remains committed to paying all legally and constitutionally valid dues, but key judicial precedents may have been overlooked in the current ruling,” said Cheema at a press conference in Chandigarh. Cheema’s remarks came hours after the Opposition Congress sought an assurance from the government on the issue in the Vidhan Sabha.
On Monday, a high court division bench directed the state government to clear all pending DA dues of approximately 7.5 lakh employees and pensioners within a fortnight. The court further ordered that until all outstanding DA amounts are fully cleared, the state government must refrain from “unproductive expenditures” such as large-scale print and social media advertising campaigns. The bench ruled that default on the timeline would attract a 6% annual interest penalty.
“Our legal team is examining the high court’s judgment in detail, reviewing the judicial precedents and consulting experts to determine the appropriate course, including the possibility of filing an appeal before the Supreme Court,” Cheema said.
The state’s argument is that it cannot simultaneously sustain both higher baseline pay scales and peak central DA rates. Cheema said the previous Congress administration had decided that new recruits would be brought under Central Pay Commission guidelines. Highlighting the state’s fiscal challenges, Cheema pointed to an inherited liability of ₹14,191 crore in pay commission arrears from previous administrations. “The government has already cleared over ₹6,000 crore under a high court-approved liquidation plan,” he added.
Cheema said the employee pay commission report was originally formulated in 2016 during the tenure of the SAD-BJP government but remained unimplemented for years. “The report was implemented only in July 2021. As a result, DA arrears from January 1, 2016, to July 2021 were frozen, creating a liability of ₹14,191 crore,” he said.
Cheema further said that although the process of implementing the pay commission recommendations had been initiated under the previous regime, the then Congress government remained in power without releasing even a single rupee towards clearing these arrears, leaving the entire financial burden on the present government.
Govt must give assurance to employees: Bajwa
Earlier, raising the DA issue during the zero hour on the second day of the monsoon session, leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa said while Grade-I officers were getting the dearness allowance, government staff in Grade II, III, and IV had not been paid the allowance. “A single-judge bench of the high court had earlier directed the government, and now the division bench has issued the order,” he added.
Bajwa said several union leaders who had contacted him requested that he seek an assurance from the Punjab government, through the assembly speaker, whether it would release their pending DA arrears or challenge the high court’s order in the apex court. “Government employees had backed the AAP and brought it to power in 2022,” he said, urging Mann and Cheema to clear the air on the issue.
Addressing a party event in Fazilka, Punjab Congress chief Raha Amarinder Singh Warring warned that if the state government failed to release pending DA to employees within 15 days, the Congress would launch protests “from Parliament to the streets” in support of government employees.
Earlier, hailing the HC verdict, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia said: “The anti-employee attitude of the AAP government had been exposed in court. The government tried its best to deny the DA benefits to employees on one pretext or the other.” Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar-Surjit) president Giani Harpreet Singh termed the HC order as a major victory for employees and pensioners. Singh said the bench reaffirmed that once the state accepted the Sixth Punjab Pay Commission’s recommendations, employees and pensioners could not be denied the consequential benefits.
