In a landmark judgment the Calcutta High Court on Friday ruled that Dearness Allowance was both, legal and fundamental right related to the right to life.

This, even as the Bengal government continued to suffer judicial setbacks with Division Bench of Justice Harish Tandoon directing the State to clear the DA of the government employees within three months.

The DA would be paid under the West Bengal Services (Revision of Pay and Allowances) Rules, 2009, advocates of the petitioners said.

Accordingly the “DA would have to be calculated in terms of the All India Consumer Price Index average 536 (1982=100),” sources said.

“The Division Bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Rabindranath Samanta said that DA is a legal right of the government employees. The court has upheld the order of the SAT (state administrative tribunal) which was passed in July, 2019 while rejecting the writ petition of the state government, Shamim said adding the Court upheld the earlier order given by the State Administrative Tribunal.

According to estimates about 10 lakh government employees and pensioners would be benefited by the judgment.

Reacting to the order BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said that “the Government was trying to convince the Court that it had shortage of funds … even the Chief Minister had also attacked the government employees saying they were ‘barking’ as if they were dogs … but at the same time she had the funds to give doles to win votes.”

TMC spokesperson on the other hand said that the Government would clear the DA but the BJP should also tell the Centre to “release Rs 95,000 crore which it has withheld.”