Delivering a landmark judgment last Friday, April 10, the Supreme Court said state governments cannot discriminate between serving employees and pensioners while increasing dearness allowance (DA). In an important decision, upholding the right to equality of retired employees, Justice Manoj Mishra and Justice Prasanna B. Varale’s bench rejected the appeals of the Kerala government and the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). Furthermore, the Court confirmed that both serving and retired employees are “equally” affected by inflation.
What is the matter?
This matter is of 2021. At the time, the Kerala government and KSRTC had tried to justify their decision to pay lower dearness allowance to pensioners compared to serving employees, citing the severe economic crisis. He termed the matter as a policy decision, dividing pensioners and employees into different categories. During that time, employees were given 14 percent DA, while pensioners got 11 percent dearness relief (DR). Both the Kerala government and KSRTC had argued that their financial condition was very poor and hence, they could not provide equal dearness relief (DR) to all.
What did the court say?
Completely rejecting the arguments of the Kerala government and KSRTC, the Supreme Court said that financial constraints cannot be a ground for violation of constitutional rights. Discriminating between the two groups is a direct violation of Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution. The court said that both pensioners and serving employees face the impact of inflation equally.
The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Kerala High Court, which had directed KSRTC to provide dearness relief to pensioners at the same rate as it 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 equal 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 give dearness relief (DR) to the pensioners at the same rate. Detailed orders regarding payment of dues are expected to be issued later.
