Kochi: The Kerala Administrative Tribunal (KAT) has ordered that the arrears of dearness allowance (DA) since 2021 should be paid to government employees under any circumstances. The financial crisis or treasury restrictions should not be cited as reasons for not clearing these dues, said the KAT’s interim order.
The order was issued based on a petition filed by office-bearers of the Kerala NGO Association.
A bench of KAT chairman Justice C K Abdul Raheem also said that the government should file an affidavit before it, mentioning the date by which the arrears could be cleared. KAT directed the government to file this affidavit before December 11, when the case would be considered again.
In the event of the government failing to file this reply, KAT would be forced to announce a date by which the payment should be done, said the order.
The plea filed by NGO Association president Chavara Jayakumar, general secretary A M Jaffer Khan and treasurer Thomas Herbit pointed out that six installments of DA had not been paid since January 2021 and sought measures from the government to clear these dues.
According to the employees, the DA installments of January and July 2021; January and July 2022 and January and July this year were pending. The petitioners said that even though employees’ organisations had approached the government seeking payment of these arrears, the latter cited the financial crisis for the delay.
The NGO Association office-bearers subsequently approached KAT pointing out a Supreme Court order which said that salary and DA of employees cannot be denied based on such reasons.