Chandigarh, Sept. 2 -- The Punjab government has moved the Supreme Court challenging a high court order directing it to release all pending dearness allowance dues to state employees and pensioners within a fortnight, contending that the direction to pay arrears totalling around Rs.14,191 crore in such a short period is constitutionally impossible. The special leave petition has been filed by the additional chief secretary (finance) department challenging the August 3 HC judgment, which directed payment of the pending dues at rates applicable for officers of the All -India Services serving in the state within a fortnight. The employees have already filed a caveat before the apex court demanding that before an order is passed on the appeal from the state government, the affected employees should also be heard. Nirmal Singh Dhanoa and other pensioners, on whose plea the high court order had come, filed a contempt petition on August 21 before HC seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against senior bureaucrats for not following the court order. The stand-off between the government and employees over the issue has escalated in the recent days with over 3 lakh employees observing a statewide mass strike on August 27. In response to this, the government has reportedly directed officers to issue show-cause notices to the employees for their "unauthorised" absence on the day of strike. Now, the employees have threatened mass leave on September 8 over government notices and transfers of some leaders. The DA and arrears have now swelled to Rs.20,000 crore, according to the latest estimates. In its plea before the top court, Punjab argued that its rules do not mandate payment of dearness allowance (DA) to state employees at the rate fixed by the Centre for its employees. The Punjab Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2021, prescribe no specific index, formula, rate or interval for DA and leave the matter to the state government's discretion, it added. "Compliance is not merely difficult; it is constitutionally impossible in the time allowed. According to Article 266(3), no money may be appropriated from the consolidated fund of a state except in the manner provided by the Constitution, and that manner is Articles 202 to 206," the plea said. The government has challenged the high court's reliance on the DA paid to All India Services officers as a comparator for determining the entitlement of state employees. The state pays DA to All India Services officers at the central rate because they are governed by Union law and the state has no power to determine their service conditions, it has reasoned. The government has argued that Punjab's existing DA rate of 42% already results in higher aggregate monthly emoluments than corresponding central categories in five of seven representative categories cited by the government. "In five of the seven categories, the Punjab employee already draws more at the existing 42% by between Rs.1,832 and Rs.17,852 a month; in the clerk and constable cadres, Punjab's basic pay alone, Rs.38,600, exceeds the entire central aggregate of basic pay and DA at 60%, namely Rs.36,960," the plea said. It contended that HC's direction to release the entire admitted arrears within 14 days cannot be implemented without following constitutional procedure for withdrawal of money from the consolidated fund of the state.The government said its cabinet had approved a liquidation plan in February 2025 under which arrears of around Rs.14,191 crore were to be paid in phases over five financial years. The plea challenges HC's direction restraining the state from incurring "unproductive expenditure", arguing that no such expenditure was pleaded or supported by evidence before the court. The government be allowed to use its discretion to determine DA and the manner and timing of payment of arrears, the government has pleaded demanding that HC judgment be set aside....