The Supreme Court docket on Friday (April 10) noticed that granting greater dearness allowance (DA) to serving staff than dearness reduction (DR) to pensioners is bigoted and violates Article 14, ruling that each advantages share a typical goal, i.e., neutralising the impression of inflation.
A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Prasanna B Varale dismissed appeals filed by the State of Kerala and the Kerala State Street Transport Company (KSRTC), thereby upholding the Kerala Excessive Court docket’s determination placing down the differential charges.
“…as soon as pension is admissible and, based mostly on inflation, DR is admissible on it, saying DR at a price decrease than at what DA is supplied, when each are linked to inflation and serve a typical object, can be nothing however discriminatory in addition to arbitrary. Due to this fact, in our view, the Excessive Court docket was justified in holding the identical to be discriminatory and violative of Article 14.”, the courtroom held.
The controversy stemmed from a 2021 Authorities Order below which serving staff have been granted a 14% improve in DA, whereas Pensioners have been granted solely an 11% improve in DR. Each increments have been linked to the identical inflation index and carried out from March 2021.
Whereas a Single Choose of the Excessive Court docket upheld the classification, a Division Bench struck it down as discriminatory, prompting the State’s attraction to the Supreme Court docket.
Affirming the impugned order, the judgment authored by Justice Misra noticed:
“The item and goal of dearness allowance/dearness reduction is to mitigate the hardship confronted by salaried staff/pensioners on account of inflation. The Authorities Order in query will increase the speed of DA by 14% and DR by 11% although the rise is to serve a typical object, which is to mitigate the hardship confronted by the serving staff and pensioners on account of inflation. Indisputably, inflation hits each serving and retired staff with equal pressure, subsequently, differentiating the 2 qua the speed of improve of DA and DR, in our view, has no rational nexus to the article sought to be achieved.”
The Court docket rejected the State’s argument about going through a monetary burden, the place the state justified the differential charges for the serving and retired staff. Disagreeing with this argument, the Court docket noticed:
“Little question a monetary crunch is perhaps a guiding issue to defer disbursement of sure advantages or could justify separate dates for implementation of helpful schemes. However as soon as a choice is taken to supply sure allowances as additionally to extend them, based mostly on inflation, fixing the next price of improve for those who’re serving than those who’ve retired, can be arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Structure. The query posited above, is answered accordingly.”
Accordingly, the attraction was dismissed.
Trigger Title: THE STATE OF KERALA VERSUS M. VIJAYAKUMAR & ORS. (and related case)
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For Petitioner(s) Mr. P.V. Dinesh, Sr. Adv. Mr. Deepak Prakash, AOR Mr. Nachiketa Vajpayee, Adv. Ms. Divyangna Malik, Adv. Ms. Jyoti Pandey, Adv. Mr. Rahul Suresh, Adv. Ms. Shivangi Rajawat, Adv. Mr. Chetan Jadon, Adv. Ms. Anna Oommen, Adv. Mr. Jaideep Gupta, Sr. Adv. Mr. C. Ok. Sasi, AOR Ms. Meena Ok Poulose, Adv. Mr. Riddhi Bose, Adv. Ms. Racheeta Chawla, Adv. Ms. Sampriti Bakshi, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Banerjee, Adv.
For Respondent(s) Mr. V. Chitambaresh, Sr. Adv. Mr. Vipin Nair, AOR Mr. Aditya Narendranath, Adv. Mr. Mohd Aman Alam, Adv. Ms. M.b.ramya, Adv. Ms. Deeksha Gupta, Adv. 2 Mr. C. Ok. Sasi, AOR Ms. Meena Ok Poulose, Adv. Mr. Deepak Prakash, AOR
 observed that granting higher dearness allowance (DA) to serving employees than dearness relief (DR) to pensioners is arbitrary and violates Article 14, ruling...){kind=link}