Calcutta HC rejects dearness allowance review petition filed by Bengal govt

A division bench of the Calcutta High Court rejected a review petition of West Bengal government to reconsider an earlier judgement of the bench to clear dearness allowance arrears within three months

A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday rejected a review petition of West Bengal government to reconsider an earlier judgement of the bench to clear dearness allowance (DA) arrears within three months.

The bench comprising justices Harish Tandon and Rabindranath Samanta rejected the state government's petition to review its May 20 order.

Upholding an order of the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT), the Calcutta High Court had in May directed the West Bengal government to release dearness DA arrears since July 2009, when the Revision of Pay and Allowances (ROPA) came into effect in the state, within three months.

The state government had filed a writ petition in the high court challenging the SAT order of July 2019 that directed it to pay DA at par with the Centre, and to clear the amount in three instalments.

The division bench on Thursday also fixed November 9 as the date of hearing of a contempt petition filed by the associations of state government employees, alleging that the authorities had not cleared the DA arrears within three months from May 2022.