Court poser on CM remarks

TT, Calcutta, Sept. 11: Calcutta High Court today termed "unfortunate" some remarks made by chief minister Mamata Banerjee while announcing a 15 per cent dearness allowance for state government employees from January next year.

"These words (spoken by the chief minister) are unfortunate," Acting Chief Justice Nishita Mhatre observed while hearing a case relating to DA of state employees.

At the programme on September 7, the chief minister had said: "Barking ( gheu gheu) will not help. I am not afraid. Work will be done on time."

During an earlier hearing of the case on September 5, the acting chief justice had said "dearness allowance may or may not be the right of the state government employees... but it is their aspiration".

The court was hearing a petition by two unions of state government employees demanding DA on a par with their central counterparts.

Two days later, Mamata announced 15 per cent DA for state government employees and made the remarks at the programme.

When the case came up for hearing today, Sardar Amjad Ali, the counsel appearing for the petitioner employees, told the court: "My Lords, my clients are begging for DA before the court. They are not barking before the court."

Justice Mhatre could not comprehend what Ali wanted to say and asked Justice Tapabrata Chakrabarty, the other judge on the bench.

Justice Chakrabarty then spoke to the acting chief justice in a hushed tone.

Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, representing the Co-ordination Committee of State Government Employees, also informed the acting chief justice about chief minister's remark.

Justice Mhatre then made her observation.

State advocate-general Kishore Dutta also assured the court today that the government would publish by Wednesday the notification of awarding 15 per cent DA to its employees.