₹14k-crore DA dues in 14 days ‘constitutionally impossible’: Punjab government to Supreme Court

The state challenged the August 3 judgment directing payment of the dues at rates applicable to All India Services officers serving in Punjab.

The Punjab government on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court against a Punjab and Haryana High Court order directing it to clear around ₹14,191 crore in pending dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) dues to state employees and pensioners within a fortnight, arguing that the direction is not merely difficult to comply with but “constitutionally impossible”.

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In its petition, filed through the additional chief secretary, finance, the state challenged the August 3 judgment directing payment of the dues at rates applicable to All India Services officers serving in Punjab. It said the high court had effectively ordered withdrawal of a massive amount from the state’s Consolidated Fund without following the constitutionally prescribed procedure.

“Compliance is not merely difficult; it is constitutionally impossible in the time allowed,” said the plea, citing Article 266(3), which provides that no money can be withdrawn from a state’s Consolidated Fund except in accordance with the procedure laid down in Articles 202 to 206 of the Constitution.

The high court had also ordered that the state pay 6% simple interest in case of default and restrained it from incurring “unproductive” expenditure until the DA and DR dues were cleared.

The state has questioned the very basis for treating the DA rates applicable to central government employees and All India Services officers as the benchmark for Punjab government employees.

It argued that the Punjab Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2021, do not prescribe any particular index, formula, rate or periodicity for determining DA and leave the matter to the state government’s discretion.

The government said All India Services officers were a fundamentally different category since their service conditions are governed by Union law. Punjab merely pays them DA at the central rate because it has no power to determine their service conditions, it said.

The state also disputed the high court’s comparison of its employees’ salaries with those of central government employees, saying its existing DA rate of 42% already results in higher aggregate monthly emoluments in five of the seven representative categories cited before the court.

“In five of the seven categories, the Punjab employee already draws more at the existing 42%,” said the plea, with the difference ranging from ₹1,832 to ₹17,852 a month.

In the case of clerks and constables, the state said, the basic pay itself — ₹38,600 — is higher than the entire central aggregate of basic pay and DA at 60%, which comes to ₹36,960.

The two categories in which Punjab employees were shown to be behind the corresponding central categories — superintendent and police inspector — would also move into surplus under the state’s proposed calculations, the plea said. The shortfall of ₹5,676 and ₹7,372 would turn into surpluses of ₹4,800 and ₹2,240 respectively.

The government also relied on a Cabinet-approved plan of February 2025 for liquidation of the arrears. Under the plan, the ₹14,191-crore liability was to be cleared in phases over five financial years.

The state said the high court’s direction to pay the entire admitted arrears within 14 days ignored this financial plan as well as the constitutional procedure governing withdrawals from the Consolidated Fund.

Punjab has also challenged the direction restraining it from incurring “unproductive” expenditure, saying no such expenditure had been specifically pleaded or established by evidence before the high court.

The state has asked the Supreme Court to set aside the August 3 judgment and restore its discretion to determine the rate of DA and decide the manner and timeline for clearing the arrears.