The West Bengal State Administrative Tribunal on Friday directed the state government to pay its employees dearness allowances on a par with the central government staff, upholding the contention that DA was a fundamental right of employees.

The tribunal bench of former high court judge R.K. Bag and retired IAS officer Subesh Das directed the chief secretary in its 30-page verdict to evolve norms within three months for the release of DA on basic pay by taking into consideration the central price index.

The order also stated that the DA of Bengal government employees should be revised at least twice a year till they begin receiving salaries according to the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.

According to the order, the state government has been directed to pay DA arrears within a year or before giving effect to the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.

The commission was set up in November 2015 to fix a revised pay scale for nearly 8 lakh state government employees and staff of state-aided institutions like schools.

To pay DA on a par with the amount received by central government staff, the cash-strapped Bengal government will have to shell out an additional Rs 8,500 crore annually.

“The state has to spend Rs 33,000 crore annually to give salary to its employees. An additional sum of Rs 8,500 crore under this head will be tough to arrange unless some of the welfare schemes are discontinued,” a finance department official said.

Senior state government officials refused to comment on the next course of action, but some officials said on the condition of anonymity that the chief minister would take a call on whether to challenge the verdict in a higher court.

A lawyer who has read the tribunal order said contesting its legal validity would be difficult as it had referred to similar cases.

“Guwahati High Court has already held that the government employees of the state of Tripura are entitled to get DA arrears at the rate payable to the employees of the central government and the said judgment attained finality without being challenged before the higher forum,” the tribunal order says.

The order also dealt with the issue of the Bengal government paying its employees posted in New Delhi and Chennai DA on a par with their central counterparts.

The judgment sought an end to this practice. “The state government has the power, authority and discretion to give incentives to its employees posted in New Delhi and Chennai through special allowances, but not DA at a rate higher than that of other Bengal government employees,” said a lawyer, referring to the order.

“It is a historic judgement. It was long due and has brought an end to a two-year legal battle between the employees and the state government. However, we suspect that the Mamata Banerjee government would challenge the tribunal order in a division bench of Calcutta High Court,” said Debashis Seal, convenor of the BJP-backed Sarkari Karmachari Parishad.