DA not a discretionary or ex gratia payment, say employees in affidavit to HC

A week after the Government of Kerala informed the Kerala High Court that the grant of dearness allowance (DA) is at the administration’s discretion and cannot be claimed as a statutory right, N. Mahesh, an employee of Mahatma Gandhi University, along with others, has filed an additional reply affidavit in the court.

They stated that they are aggrieved by the “continued inaction and failure on the part of the respondents to revise and disburse the DA arrears.” The arrears are legitimately due to employees and other similarly situated non-teaching staff across universities in Kerala. The High Court has issued multiple interim orders directing the government and other stakeholders concerned to take steps for the disbursement of DA arrears.

Dearness Allowance is not a discretionary or ex gratia payment; it is a structured and integral component of the pay framework under the Kerala Pay Revision Orders, expressly designed to offset increases in the cost of living, as measured by inflation indices such as the All India Consumer Price Index, they said.

Once a pay revision order is accepted and implemented, the State is obligated to apply it in full and cannot selectively revise pay or indefinitely withhold DA revisions. Prolonged denial of DA, despite ongoing inflation, results in the erosion of real wages and effectively constitutes an indirect pay cut — an outcome impermissible under settled principles of service jurisprudence. The assertion that the accrued arrears are merely discretionary and not a matter of right, they claim, is unlawful. Executive instructions or purported “new practices” cannot be invoked to defeat rights lawfully earned by employees.

The petitioners claimed that members of the Public Service Commission have received increased salary and DA benefits with retrospective effect. Such selective extension of benefits constitutes hostile discrimination and impermissible sub-classification, rendering the respondents’ actions arbitrary.

It is also relevant that on January 9 the government issued an order enhancing the daily wages of prisoners — granting double the amount recommended by the ‘Prison Chief.’ This, the petitioners say, demonstrates the State’s capacity to assume additional recurring financial liabilities and reflects discretionary fiscal prioritisation.