Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], November 2 (ANI): In a major setback to the Himachal Pradesh government, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has struck down key provisions allowing the state to defer and release revised salary and pensionary arrears of government employees and pensioners in a phased manner, holding that financial constraints and administrative discretion cannot override statutory monetary entitlements.
A Division Bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Ranjan Sharma, in a judgement pronounced on October 31, allowed a batch of writ petitions challenging the government's mechanism for staggered payment of revised pay arrears and retirement benefits arising from the Revised Pay Rules notified on January 3, 2022.
The High Court read down and declared Rule 13 of the Himachal Pradesh Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2022, inoperative to the extent that it granted the government unrestricted discretion to determine the time and manner of payment of revised salary arrears.
The Bench also quashed provisions empowering the state to decide the future schedule for releasing revised pension, family pension and gratuity arrears. It set aside provisions providing for phased release of revised commuted pension and struck down the government's action in withholding or delaying revised leave encashment.
While granting relief, the High Court directed the state government to release the entire revised salary arrears and admissible revised retirement benefits to the lead petitioner in two equal instalments.
The first instalment must be paid by December 15, 2026, and the second by February 28, 2027.
The directions cover revised pension and family pension, gratuity, commuted pension and leave encashment, wherever admissible.
The Court also ordered payment of simple interest at six per cent per annum from June 1, 2022, until the actual release of the benefits. The interest will apply to the entire amount, including the arrears scheduled to be released under the two instalments.
Clarifying the scope of the relief, the Bench said employees and pensioners who had not filed writ petitions by October 30, 2026, would also remain entitled to their substantive monetary benefits.
However, they would not be entitled to the six per cent interest awarded to the petitioners in the present batch of cases.
The state government had defended the phased payment mechanism on the grounds of financial constraints, particularly following the discontinuation of the Revenue Deficit Grant by the Central Government.
Rejecting the argument, the High Court observed that once the government had notified the Revised Pay Rules with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016, and conferred corresponding monetary entitlements upon employees and retirees, it could not subsequently restrict or indefinitely defer their payment through administrative orders.
The Bench held that financial constraints could not be invoked to defeat legitimate monetary dues arising from statutory rules.
It further observed that the government could not introduce artificial cut-off dates between 2022 and 2026 for releasing benefits whose entitlement had already accrued under the applicable statutory framework.
The Court also took note of the differential treatment of pensioners, observing that selectively releasing benefits to certain retirees while keeping others waiting amounted to discrimination within a homogeneous class.
A central issue before the Court was whether accrued salary and retirement benefits could be withheld through provisions granting unrestricted discretion to the government.
Holding that such benefits constituted valuable legal entitlements protected under Article 300-A of the Constitution, the Bench observed that the state could not deprive employees and pensioners of their accrued rights through arbitrary administrative action.
The judgement described the impugned provisions as conferring “unfettered, unbridled, uncanalised and unrestricted discretion” upon the state authorities.
The ruling is expected to have implications for the government's pending liability towards revised salary and pension arrears of employees and pensioners across Himachal Pradesh. (ANI)
Himachal HC strikes down phased payment of salary, pension arrears; orders 6% interest
