The Supreme Court on Tuesday cited paucity of time and adjourned to April 24 hearing of the Bengal government’s appeal challenging the contempt proceedings initiated against it by Bengal's Confederation of State Government Employees and others questioning the refusal of the state to clear their dearness allowance.

A bench of Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Sanjay Kumar adjourned the matter after noting that the day’s regular board would take considerable time and the matter could not be dealt with on Tuesday.

The new bench headed by Justice Maheshwari was constituted on December 14 last year after one of the judges — Justice Dipankar Datta — had recused from hearing the state government’s appeal challenging the contempt proceedings after expressing disappointment and anguish at media reports over a possible favourable verdict in favour of the employees on account of his Bengali lineage.

In Calcutta, the Sangrami Joutha Mancha claimed its confidence was high even though there had been a delay in the Supreme Court hearing the DA case.

Bhaskar Ghosh, the convenor of the Mancha, said the success of the two-day-long protest demonstration, which concluded at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Tuesday, was a bigger takeaway for them than the postponement of the hearing.

"Numerous Bengalis came to meet and greet us at the protest site. They came to express solidarity with our movement. This news is bigger than anything else," Ghosh told this newspaper.

"We are not upset because of these postponements. Our faith in the judiciary is strong and we believe that in spite of the delay, we will get justice," Ghosh said.

A delegation of state government employees met Union minister Smriti Irani on Tuesday and handed over a memorandum to her. While the Mancha had sought an appointment with the Union finance and education ministers, they could meet Irani who is the minister of the woman and child affairs, and the minority affairs departments.

"Smritiji met us as a representative of the Union government and said she would forward our memorandum to ministries concerned," Ghosh said adding though they had sought appointments with the President and the Vice-President, the meetings did not happen.