Tribunal declares PGI’s denial of allowance to ministerial staff illegal
Chandigarh bench orders payment of arrears from July 2017
The Chandigarh bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has ruled that the PGIMER’s decision to stop the Hospital Patient Care Allowance (HPCA) for its ministerial staff is illegal, arbitrary, and unsustainable in law.
The bench set aside the order dated February 7, 2018, and the Office Memorandum dated April 21, 2023, denying HPCA to the applicants.
It asked the PGI to grant HPCA to the applicants in accordance with the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) with effect from July 2017, and to pay all arrears within three months from the receipt of the order.
The ruling came while allowing the application filed by the PGIMER Employees Union and Ravinder Kumar Garg, Technical Assistant at the PGI, through lawyer Karan Singla.
The applicants had also requested the release of the revised HPCA under the newly approved risk and hardship matrix.
Singla argued that the Centre accepted the recommendations of the CPC through a notification dated July 25, 2016, and extended them to autonomous bodies on January 13, 2017.
The applicants argued that once the cabinet had notified the revised allowances, including HPCA, the PGI was bound to implement them.
After hearing the arguments, Judicial Member Suresh Batra held that the PGI’s decision to stop HPCA for ministerial staff was illegal.
