GNDU assns hail High Court order on restoring secretarial allowance

Amritsar, May 17

Guru Nanak Dev University Non-Teaching Association and Officers’ Association welcomed the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court regarding the secretarial allowance in favour of ministerial staff belonging to various universities of Punjab. The chief petitioner in the case was Balveer Singh Garcha, former member of GNDU Non-teaching Association.

It may be mentioned that in 2020, the then secretary of GNDU Non-Teaching Association, Balveer Singh Garcha, filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the state government’s proposal to delink and close secretarial allowance of the ministerial staff of the state universities while planning to implement the 6th Pay Commission by the Punjab Government.

“The Non-teaching Association at the time, led by Garcha, felt the move was unjustified and had filed a petition against it in April 2020. After almost four years, the court reserved its decision for 10 days and issued the guidelines for continuation of secretarial allowance yesterday,” shared Hardeep Singh Nagra, president, GNDU Non-teaching Association.

The ministerial staff of the university was getting secretarial allowance since December 1979, considering GNDU at par with Secretariat, under which the benefits including dearness allowance and monthly allowance of up to Rs 2,000 was given. After the state government decided to discontinue it, petitions were filed by GNDU associations, and the associations of Punjabi University, Patiala and Punjab University, Chandigarh. “We are happy that the court ruling was in our favour as it would have cost each employee a financial loss of Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000 every month. Also, our promotions would have been affected. The court has issued guidelines to the government and the GNDU administration in its order to issue secretarial allowance since back date, including the employees who retired in the meantime,” said Hardeep.