Chandigarh, May 3 -- Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has approached the Punjab and Haryana high court challenging a single judge's order directing the state to pay pending dearness allowance (DA) to employees and pensioners by June 30 on a par with All India Services (IAS/IPS/IFS) officers on central government pattern. The order was applicable to employees of corporations and other such arms like the PSPCL. The order was passed by the HC on April 8 and released on April 19. Rough estimates suggest the liability for the government would be anywhere between Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 14,000 crore. The court underlined that once the government has accepted the recommendation of the 6th Pay Commission, the benefits arising from the said recommendations cannot be denied to the petitioners. It asserted that Punjab cannot deny the payment of DA to the petitioners on the ground of its financial position and priorities. It is immediately not clear what grounds the PSPCL has taken to challenge the April 8 HC order. The petition is likely to be listed for hearing next week. The employees and pensioners have also filed a caveat apprehending the state's appeal, which effectively means that the high court will hear them before passing an interim order on the appeal of the PSPCL. Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa have condemned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the state for challenging the HC orders. Reacting to the state's move to challenge the orders, Warring alleged that this has exposed the AAP's duplicity and hypocrisy. He said, "On the one hand it held a special session in the name of labourers and the next day it went ahead with a move to snatch away the benefit to about 7 lakh government employees and pensioners in the state". Bajwa said, "What makes it worse is that the government chose to approach the court on May 1 itself-the very day it was holding a special session in the name of workers and labourers. This is not coincidence, this is calculated duplicity."...