By Admin 
DA Hike: The Supreme Court gave a historic verdict on Friday, April 10, saying that state governments can no longer discriminate between serving employees and pensioners while increasing DA. In an important judgment upholding the right to equality for retired employees, Justice Manoj Mishra and Justice Prasanna B. Varale’s bench dismissed the appeals filed by the State of Kerala and the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). It also confirmed that both serving and retired employees are “equally” affected by inflation.
What is the matter?
Actually, the matter is of the year 2021. During that time, the Kerala government and KSRTC had tried to justify lower dearness allowances for pensioners compared to serving employees by citing the huge financial crisis. Considering pensioners and workers as separate categories, he had called it a policy matter. During that time, employees were given 14 percent DA and pensioners were given 11 percent DR. Both Kerala government and KSRTC said that their financial condition is not good, hence they cannot give equal dearness relief (DR) to everyone.
What did the court say?
The Supreme Court completely rejected the arguments of the Kerala government and KSRTC and said that financial constraints cannot be the basis for violation of constitutional rights. Discriminating among them is a direct violation of Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution. The court said that both pensioners and serving employees face inflation equally.
The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Kerala High Court, in which KSRTC was directed to provide dearness relief to pensioners at the same rate as is being given to serving employees. This decision of the court has brought great relief to thousands of retired employees of Kerala, who were demanding dearness relief for a long time. This decision of the Supreme Court is expected to put an additional burden of crores of rupees on KSRTC because now it will have to pay DR to pensioners at the same rate. Detailed orders for payment of outstanding amounts are expected to be issued later.
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DA Hike Delay: Decision on dearness allowance delayed, was the break due to 8th Pay Commission? know