Punjab spending large amount of money on freebies, ads but not paying dues to employees: P&H High Court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday observed that the Punjab government was spending huge amounts of money on freebies and advertisements but withholding legitimate dues of its own employees citing financial constraints.

A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor made the observation in a judgment directing Punjab government to release up-to-date pending installments of dearness allowance/ dearness relief (DA/DR) to all its employees and pensioners.

The Court also said that Punjab shall not resort to any unproductive expenditures such as large-scale advertising campaigns in print or social media, till these dues are cleared.

"While the issue of financial constraints is being raised as a ground for withholding the legitimate dues of the State’s own employees, however, as per the information available in the public domain, the State is expending large amounts of money on grant of freebies, doles, advertorial campaigns, and other expenditure, which would not strictly fall within the domain of essential expenditure by a welfare State, cannot be brushed aside, lightly," the Court said.

The Court ruled that the legitimate dues payable to the employees of the State cannot be withheld on the ground of any new alleged welfare schemes.

"Viewed in any manner, large scale advertising campaigns in print or social media and other unproductive expenses cannot justify denial of dues admissible to the State employees," the Bench added.

The Court was dealing with petitions rejecting Punjab government and Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL)'s appeals challenging a single-judge verdict.

The single-judge had on April 8 directed the State and PSPCL to release till June 30 all up-to-date pending installments of DA or DR to all its employees and pensioners at the same rates as has been paid to the members of the All India Services (IAS/IPS/IFS) serving within Punjab.

In 2021, Punjab government had approved the recommendation of the 6th Pay Commission to grant DA/DR to the State employees on the Central government pattern. However, despite the approval, it failed to release the amounts. This led to multiple petitions before the High Court.

The pensioners also challenged government's liquidation plan under which it decided to spread the payment of pension and DA/DR over five financial years and for pensioners below the age of 75 years over 42 instalments without interest.

Today, the Court ruled that the State was bound by its policy decision of adopting the Central government pattern for payment of DA/DR.

It added that the State cannot be permitted to pay the same in a staggered manner over a period of five financial years by adopting a discriminatory approach and paying the amount of arrears for the pensioners below the age of 75 years over as many as 42 installments, and that too without interest.

Advocate General Maninderjit Singh Bedi, Additional Advocate General Maninder Singh Garcha along with Senior Deputy Advocate Generals Salil Sabhlok and Rajeev Madan appeared for State of Punjab.

Senior Additional Advocate General Anu Chatrath with Advocate Ratik Chatrath Kapur also appeared for State authorities.

Senior Advocate DS Patwalia with Advocate AS Chadha also represented State authorities.

Senior Advocate Chanchal K Singla with Advocates Kavita Joshi and Medha Dewan appeared for Punjab State Power Corporation Limited. Senior Advocate Rahul Sharma with Advocate Yash Tayal also represented PSPCL. 

Senior Advocate Sanjay Kaushal with Advocates Sunny Singla, Riti Aggarwal, Arjun Kaushal and Ankit Rana represented private respondents.

Senior Advocate Chetan Mittal with Advocates Gagneshwar Walia, Jatinder Singh Gill and Fateh Singh Dhillon represented intervenors. 

[Read Judgment]