Delhi High Court gives Central government 7 weeks to extend HRA to all ranks of paramilitary forces

The Delhi High Court has set a deadline of seven weeks for the Central government to implement a judgment passed last year to extend the benefit of House Rent Allowance (HRA) to all personnel of paramilitary forces irrespective of their rank. [Aarif Hussain Versus Shri Ajay Kumar Bhalla And Ors].In an order passed on August 29, Justice Jasmeet Singh also took critical note that time and again, it has come to the court's notice that timelines and directions given by the High Court “are totally ignored and not adhered to.”The Court noted that the Central government including the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Finance had earlier been given six weeks to comply with the direction. However, the order has remained unenforced for more than nine months now, the Court found. It added that the mere fact that an appeal was filed against the order before the Supreme Court cannot be a reason for non-compliance with the order.“The respondent No. 2 – CRPF is a security force and is not exempt from the jurisdiction of this Court. There is total non compliance of the directions and timelines indicated by the Court. In case the orders are not complied with in letter, spirit and intent within a period of seven weeks from today, the respondent No.2 shall remain present in Court on the next date of hearing,” Justice Singh further remarked, in his August 29 order. .At the request of the counsel representing the Union government, the Court proceeded to grant seven weeks of time for compliance with its earlier judgement passed on December 15, 2022. .The Court passed the directive in a contempt petition alleging non-compliance with the December 2022 judgment. .In the December judgment, a division bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Saurabh Banerjee had said that authorities cannot take a discriminatory view for personnel of different forces deployed in common areas when it came to the grant of HRA.It had made the observation while hearing a batch of petitions filed by group Officers in Grade-A in the Border Security Force (BSF) who were aggrieved by the denial of HRA. The petitioners pointed out that HRA was confined only to Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBOR).“We fail to understand why the Commission only thought of giving parity to the PBORs of CAPF at par with PBORs of Defence Forces; while leaving behind the proposal of extending the same benefit to the Coy Commanders (officers of the level of Assistant Commandants/ Deputy Commandants) under examination,” the Court had observed, while directing the Centre to grant the benefit of HRA to all personnel. .The contempt petition filed in the matter will be heard next on November 23. .Advocate Ankur Chhibber represented the petitioner who filed the contempt case. Central Government Standing Counsel Harish Vaidyanathan and Advocates Srish Kumar Mishra, Sagar Mehlawat, Alexander Mathai Paikaday, M Sriram, and Krishnan V represented the Union of India.Government Pleader Ankit Verma also appeared in the matter..[Read Order]