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 News: The Ministry of Labor and Employment has released the AICPI-IW index for 2025. On the basis of this, DA or dearness allowance is calculated for government employees, hence it is also called DA calculator. Looking at the direction in which things are moving, it can be said that the salaries of existing central government employees may increase before Holi.

Not only the current but also the retired central government employees can get good news from the Modi government before the festival of Holi. There is an estimated increase of 2 percent in Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) from January 2026.

After the release of AICPI-IW data of December 2025, it is being estimated that the government may increase Dearness Allowance (DA Hike) and Dearness Relief (DR Hike) by 2-2 percent. The central government can announce this before March. Let us tell you that the tenure of the 7th Pay Commission has ended on 31 December 2025, but till the recommendations of the 8th Pay Commission are made and implemented, DA will continue to be calculated on the basic salary of 7th CPC (7th Pay Commission).

What is AICPI‑IW?

AICPI-IW or All India Consumer Price Index-Industrial Workers is a type of index, which shows the changes in the prices of various types of goods and services from time to time. The Labor Ministry releases it every month. The central government decides DA on the basis of 12 month average of this index.

AICPI-IW in December 2025 was 148.2, whose 12-month average is 145.54. After calculation, DA comes out to be approximately 60.33 percent. The current DA is 58 percent, so there may be an increase of 2 percent. Since the government usually announces DA in round figures, DA can be settled at 60 percent.

Based on the AICPI-IW data of June 2025, the government had increased DA by 3 percent in October 2025. Then DA had increased from 55 percent to 58 percent. This time DA is expected to increase by 2 percent.

‘Good news’ may be received before Holi

The central government usually announces the DA for January in March, so it is expected that the announcement may be made in late February or early March. Holi is on March 4, so there are chances of getting good news from the government before that. The dearness allowance given to pensioners is called Dearness Relief (DR), which increases at the same rate as DA.

If the central government increases DA by 2 percent, then people whose basic salary is Rs 20,000 per month. His salary will increase by Rs 400. There will be an increase of Rs 600 for those with a salary of Rs 30,000. Those whose salary is Rs 1 lakh, their salary will increase by Rs 2000.

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DA hike: There is a good news for central government employees and pensioners. A 2 percent increase in Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) from January 2026 is considered almost certain. This is expected to provide relief from rising inflation. This means that the time has come for the government employees and retired pensioners working under the Central Government to increase their salary and pension. At present, employees are getting dearness allowance at the rate of 58 percent and with the upcoming increase of 2 percent, it will become 60 percent.

On what basis is DA decided?

According to a report by Moneycontrol, speculations are not being made merely on the basis of estimates, rather the news of 2% increase in DA and DR is based on solid government data from the Labor Bureau. The All India Consumer Price Index (AICPI-IW), used for DA calculation, has increased by 0.5 points to 148.2 in November 2025.

According to the rules of the 7th Pay Commission, to determine DA, the Consumer Price Index (CPI-IW) of the last 12 months is considered, which is based on the expenditure on daily food items, transport, accommodation and health services.

What do experts say?

If we look at the data from July to November 2025, the graph has continuously gone upwards. Based on the data of November, the dearness allowance seems to have reached 59.93 percent, which clearly shows that the dearness allowance is very close to 60 percent and now there is no possibility of it going down.

Now all eyes are on the index for December 2025, which is yet to be released. But according to experts, the picture is not going to change now. The mathematics is very simple, even if the index remains stable in December, the average DA will be 60.34 percent. Even if there is a slight decline in the index, it will still remain at the level of 60 percent.

When will it be announced?

The government’s policy has always been that it declares dearness allowance not in decimal but in whole figures, hence any figure between 60.00 percent and 60.99 percent will ultimately be considered as 60 percent. This means that it is almost certain that the dearness allowance will increase by 2 percent from the current 58 percent to 60 percent.

Although these increased rates will be effective from January 1, 2026, due to government procedures, the official announcement and notification usually comes in March or April. The difference from January till the announcement will be given to the employees as arrears. This increase is also special because the new cycle of the 8th Pay Commission is believed to start from January 1, 2026.

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