Outstanding DA for West Bengal govt employees: Will Supreme Court provide relief?

Fate will be decided today! Will West Bengal government employees ever get their outstanding Dearness Allowance (DA)? They are looking towards the Supreme Court with this question. Because the hearing of three important cases of the state is going to be held today.

Hearings of three important cases of the state are going to be held today. So it can be said that today is going to be a 'Mega Day' for West Bengal in the Supreme Court.

The three important cases that are going to be heard in the Supreme Court are the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment corruption case, the OBC certificate cancellation case, and the outstanding Dearness Allowance (DA) case of West Bengal government employees.

In short, these three cases are also very important politically today. Because the assembly elections are just around the corner. The chances of the ruling party retaining the throne will depend on the hearing.

On April 22 last year, the division bench of Calcutta High Court Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Mohammad Shabbir Rashidi canceled the entire recruitment process of 2016.

As a result, the case went to the Supreme Court. The commission has claimed that the case related to the cancellation of 26,000 SSC jobs may be heard in the division bench of Chief Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar.

The hearing of the outstanding Dearness Allowance case of West Bengal government employees under the Fifth Pay Commission is scheduled to be held in the Supreme Court today.

This case has been going on since 2016. Although the government employees won this case in the High Court, in May 2022, the Calcutta High Court directed the state government to clear the outstanding DA within three months.

But the state government has approached the Supreme Court against that verdict. The DA case came up for the first time in the Supreme Court on November 18, 2022.

Last year, i.e., on November 3, 2024, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court said that a more detailed hearing is needed on the DA of state government employees.

But after that, the case could not be heard due to lack of time. The case has been postponed repeatedly. Now it remains to be seen which side the hearing of the case in the apex court favors today.