Supreme Court adjourns dearness allowance hearing to July 14

Appeal was filed by Confederation of State Government Employees, West Bengal, and others

TT Legal Correspondent   |   New Delhi   |   29.04.23 : The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned to July 14 the hearing of the Bengal government’s appeal challenging the contempt proceedings initiated against it by employees, who challenged the refusal of the state to clear their dearness allowance.

A bench of Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Sanjay Karol adjourned the hearing after noting that the day’s regular board would take considerable time and the matter couldn't be dealt with on Friday. 

The appeal was filed by the Confederation of State Government Employees, West Bengal, and others. During the last hearing on April 11, too, the matter was adjourned because of paucity of time.

On Friday, Bengal’s standing counsel Astha Sharma urged the court to pass over the matter as senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi was busy in the CJI court in another matter. However, decided to adjourn the matter to July 14 for further hearing.

The new bench headed by Justice Maheshwari was constituted as on December 14, last year after one of the judges-Justice Dipankar Datta had recused from hearing the State government’s appeal challenging the contempt proceedings after expressing disappointment and anguish over media reports-both mainstream and social, over a possible favourable verdict in favour of the employees due to his Bengali lineage.

The other judge on the bench at that time was Justice Hrishikesh Roy who was heading it.

The apex court was dealing with an appeal filed by the Bengal government challenging an earlier ruling of Calcutta High Court that there was no bar for it to hear a contempt petition against the state for not clearing dearness allowance due to government employees within the time-frame of three months as the Supreme Court is yet to accept the administration’s SLP (special leave petition) against the high court order on the DA. 

“This court cannot wait for years. The state government is bound to give DA to its employees at par with their counterparts in the Centre with immediate effect… Moreover, the Supreme Court has not yet decided whether the SLP moved by the state against the DA order passed by this court would be accepted for hearing. So this court can hear the contempt petition moved by the employees’ associations,” Justice Harish Tandon, a senior judge of a division bench of the high court had observed.