West Bengal: State Administrative Tribunal seeks revised application in DA case

The State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) has asked the Civil Servants Council to submit a revised application for the dearness allowance case as a new chief secretary has been appointed in the state.  

The State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) has asked the Civil Servants Council to submit a revised application for the dearness allowance case as a new chief secretary has been appointed. Organization sources claim that the SAT said in the hearing of the contempt of court case filed by the government employees on Wednesday (September 30) that the chief secretary has been changed.

Rajiv Singh has been replaced by Alapan Banerjee. Therefore, the amended application has to be submitted and must include the name of the new chief secretary. In addition, a notice will have to be sent to the new chief secretary, including the SAT's July 26 verdict. The next hearing of the case filed by the SAT council will be on January 20.

The SAT said in a contempt of court case filed by the Confederation of State Governments Employees and Unity Forum on September 23 that the government would have to enforce its earlier (July 26, 2019) verdict before the next hearing on December 16, 2020.

On July 26, 2019, the SAT had directed that the arrears should be settled within three months and the method of payment should be settled within six months. According to the verdict, the government had to pay the outstanding DA before the Sixth Pay Commission came into effect. But the civil servants' organizations had filed a contempt of court case against the government in the SAT as the DA was not declared even after the pay commission came into effect.

Employees' organizations feel that the Confederation of State Governments Employees and the Unity Forum should also send a copy of the SAT's previous ruling to the new chief secretary. However, it was not clear whether the hearing scheduled for December 16 will be changed.