State of West Bengal vs Confederation of State Government Employees 2026 INSC 123 - Dearness Allowance - Art.309 Constitution

West Bengal (Revision of Pay and Allowance) Rules, 2009 - To receive dearness allowance is a legally enforceable right that has accrued in favour of the respondents-employees of the State of West Bengal. Given its incorporation in RoPA Rules, the AICPI is the standard to be followed by the State of West Bengal for determination of ‘existing emoluments’ - The employees of the appellant-State shall be entitled to release of arrears in accordance with this judgment for the time 2008-2019 - Directions issued (Para 59)

Constitution of India - Article 14 - The right to life includes the right to live with human dignity, encompassing livelihood, adequate nutrition, shelter, and basic amenities. This right, under Article 21, would lose its substantive meaning without a minimum standard of living. (Para 3)

Constitution of India - Preamble - The Preamble of the Constitution, right at the outset of our founding charter, establishes this connection between dignity and material conditions of life. By committing the State to social and economic justice, equality, and fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual, the Preamble sets the philosophical foundation of the Indian welfare state. (Para 5)

Constitution of India - Article 309 - Scope, enforceability, limitations and other aspects- (A) insofar as rules made under this Article direct something to be done in a specific manner, the Government must abide thereby. The same cannot be side-stepped by exercise of power under Article 162 of the Constitution. (B) This power cannot be circumscribed by any agreement or by function of estoppel. . (C) executive instructions have less force than statutory rules. No direction can be issued, which in effect is an amendment to the rules framed under this Article. (D) If, in the rules enacted under this Article, there exist some gaps, it is open for the Government to fill up such gaps by way of administrative instructions. (E) The power exercised under this Article must be exercised in a just, fair and reasonable manner for the same is not immune to the tests of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. (F) The rules made under this power, are generally prospective in operation unless a statute conferring/asking for rules made hereunder provides for such rules’ retrospective application. When retrospective application is directed, the date from which the rules in question are made retrospectively applicable should have reasonable nexus to the provisions contained in the rules. (G) Unless oblique motives can be demonstrated, it is not open for the Courts to redetermine methods of selection when the same has been done in accordance with the rules framed under this power. (H) The power under this Article to promulgate rules also carries with it, the power to amend the same, even retrospectively. (Para 26)

Constitution of India - Article 14 - The principle of manifest arbitrariness under Article 14 refers to legislation that is capricious, irrational, lacking in reasoned principle, or excessive and disproportionate; such arbitrariness vitiates both subordinate and plenary legislation alike. (Para 38)

Doctrine of Legitimate Expectation - (i) legitimate expectation arises based on a representation or past conduct of a public authority; (ii) legitimacy of an expectation can be inferred only if it is founded on the sanction of law or custom or an established procedure followed in regular or natural sequence; (iii) legitimate expectation provides locus standi to a claimant for judicial review; (iv) the doctrine is mostly confined to a right of a fair hearing before a decision and does not give scope to claim relief straightaway; (v) the public authority should justify the denial of a person’s legitimate expectation by resorting to overriding public interest; and (vi) the Courts cannot interfere with the decision of an authority taken by way of policy or public interest unless such decision amounts to an abuse of power.

Review Jurisdiction - The dismissal of a review petition is not a mere procedural event but a substantive judicial affirmation of the correctness of the earlier decision. It signals the end of the Court’s revisiting power and bestows upon the findings, a seal of finality, both factual and legal. The parties, having invoked and exhausted their right to seek reconsideration, are thereafter bound by those findings, which operate as res judicata in all future proceedings. This doctrine safeguards the integrity and conclusiveness of judicial decisions and ensures that litigation, once finally adjudicated and reaffirmed, is not perpetually reopened to uncertainty. (Para 47)

Delay and latches - Delay and latches do not defeat a claim on mere passage of time in all cases. It does defeat a claim, however, when the delay in question is unreasonable, unexplained and inequitable. Whether any of these vices affect a claim is to be determined inter-alia on the anvil of forum that has been invoked, the right that has been asserted and the consequences in granting the relief asked for. It is a doctrine of equity informed by public policy and judicial discretion. Delay is said to reflect acquiescence and waiver of right - in cases where there is a continuing wrong/recurring cause of action as against completed causes of action, delay in bringing a challenge would not be fatal. (Para 57)