Supreme Court upholds Rs 533 per day allowance for home guards
However, the SC bench, clarified that the arrears at the rate of Rs 533 per day shall be paid from June 1, 2018 and not January 2020, as directed by the Orissa High Court.
Published: 19th March 2023 11:48 AM | Last Updated: 19th March 2023 11:48 AM | A+A A-
A view of the Supreme Court of India in New Delhi. (File Photo | Shekar Yadav, EPS)
CUTTACK: The Supreme Court has dismissed Odisha government’s appeal against the Orissa High Court’s judgment and order to pay the home guards duty call allowance (DCA) at Rs 533 per day.A two-judge SC bench of Justice M R Shah and Justice M M Suresh confirmed on Friday that the Orissa High Court judgment and order passed by a single judge on February 28, 2020 and upheld by a division bench on August 19, 2020.
However, the SC bench, clarified that the arrears at the rate of Rs 533 per day shall be paid from June 1, 2018 and not January 2020, as directed by the Orissa High Court.“The arrears shall be paid within a period of three months from today (March 17, 2023),” the bench specified.
According to case records there are 17,765 home guards and upon payment of Rs 533 per day there will be an increase of Rs 293 per day, which will have a financial implication of Rs 51.78 lakh on the state government per day. If they are engaged 365 days a year the annual financial implication would come to Rs 189 crore.
“Taking into consideration such a huge financial burden, we restrict the benefit of DCA at Rs 533 per day from the date of filing of the writ petition before the single judge (of Orissa High Court) which would be from June 1, 2018,” the SC bench ruled.
The SC bench further observed, “It goes without saying that the home guards shall be entitled to the periodical rise which may be available to the Police personnel of the state and the DCA to be paid to the home guards be periodically increased taking into consideration the minimum of the pay to which the police personnel of the state is entitled considering periodical increase from time to time.”
Home guards who are an integral part of the police force are not regular employees. Hence, are not paid a monthly salary, but paid DCA daily. On June 1, 2018, Prakash Kumar Jena and two other home guards had filed a petition in the Orissa High Court seeking intervention for payment of higher DCA instead of Rs 240 per day.
