LI Network
Published on: 06 September 2023 at 11:53 IST
The Delhi High Court has issued a seven-week ultimatum to the Central government to implement a previous judgment from last year, which ordered the extension of House Rent Allowance (HRA) benefits to all personnel of paramilitary forces, regardless of their rank.
Justice Jasmeet Singh, in an order dated August 29, also expressed concern that the High Court’s directives and timelines have frequently been ignored and disregarded.
The Court pointed out that the Central government, including the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Finance, had been given six weeks to comply with the directive, but more than nine months have passed without enforcement. It emphasized that the mere filing of an appeal against the order before the Supreme Court cannot serve as a reason for non-compliance.
The order further noted that the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force), as a security force, is not exempt from the jurisdiction of the Delhi High Court. Given the lack of compliance with the Court’s directions and timelines, the Court warned that if the orders are not adhered to within seven weeks from the order date, the CRPF would need to appear in Court on the next hearing date.
At the request of the Union government’s counsel, the Court granted seven weeks for compliance with its earlier judgment issued on December 15, 2022.
This directive stemmed from a contempt petition alleging non-compliance with the December 2022 judgment.
In the December ruling, a division bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Saurabh Banerjee emphasized that authorities cannot discriminate against personnel from different forces deployed in common areas when it comes to granting HRA.
The judgment resulted from a batch of petitions by Grade-A Officers in the Border Security Force (BSF) who were denied HRA, which was previously limited to Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBOR).
The Court observed that the Commission had only considered granting parity to PBORs of CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces) with PBORs of the Defense Forces, leaving out the proposal to extend the same benefit to Coy Commanders (officers at the level of Assistant Commandants/Deputy Commandants).
The contempt petition related to this matter is scheduled for the next hearing on November 23.
