The Calcutta High Court on Friday rejected the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government's appeal against providing dearness allowance (DA) to employees as per directions passed by the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT).

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Reiterating that "DA is a legal right," the court said that government employees in Bengal should receive their dearness allowance (or DA) in three months. upholding a 2019 judgement of the SAT, Live Law reported on Friday.

In 2018, the high court had asked the SAT to decide whether the state government employees are entitled to DA at the central government rate.

In 2019, the SAT issued an order to entitle state government employees to get DA based on the All India Consumer Price Index (CPI). It aimed to bridge the gap between what the DA offered to Centre and state government employees.

In the order passed on July 29, 2019, the SAT said the state government employees are entitled to get arrears of dearness allowance within one year or before giving effect to the recommendation of the Sixth Pay Commission set up by the state government, whichever is earlier.

The state government employees were then also asked to link DA with CPI.

The SAT had directed the state to evolve norms within three months from the date of this order for the release of DA, news agency PTI reported.

The Bengal government later filed an appeal challenging this order. Hearing the matter on Friday, the division bench of Justices Harish Tandon and Rabindranath Samanta dismissed the Bengal government's appeal and upheld the SAT's order.

(Edited by : Akriti Anand)

First Published:May 20, 2022 2:13 PM IST