Bengal seeks more time from SC to pay 25% DA installment, says payment not possible before Dec 31

The West Bengal government has filed a fresh petition in the Supreme Court seeking additional time to pay 25 percent of the first installment of pending Dearness Allowance (DA) to its employees. In the plea, the state said it would not be able to make the payment before December 31 and requested more time to comply with the court’s directive.

The state government also referred to the upcoming Assembly elections in its petition, stating that the limited time available before the polls makes it difficult to complete the entire process of calculating and disbursing the dues. According to the petition, administrative and financial constraints have made immediate payment challenging.

The state clarified that there are currently 317,954 government employees who are entitled to receive pending DA for the period between 2008 and 2019. It added that identifying and verifying records of employees recruited before 2016 would take considerable time because the service books for that period are maintained manually.

Regarding pensioners, the government said it does not possess a complete database of retired employees. The relevant records, it noted, are stored in the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), making the process of verification and settlement more complicated.

Earlier, on February 6, the Supreme Court had directed the state to immediately pay 25 percent of the pending DA and clear the remaining 75 percent by March 31. Even after the order, activists of the Sangrami Joint Manch expressed doubts about whether the state would comply. The group had submitted a memorandum on the issue, which was later forwarded to Nabanna by the police after it could not be delivered directly.