New Delhi: The Supreme Court has quashed an order issued by KSRTC that prescribed different rates of dearness allowance for serving and retired employees, observing that such a distinction was arbitrary.

The ruling was delivered by a Bench comprising Justices Manoj Misra and P. B. Varale. The Court’s verdict is expected to impose a financial liability amounting to several crores of rupees on KSRTC.

Earlier, the Kerala High Court had also struck down the KSRTC order, which introduced separate dearness allowance rates for current and retired staff. The state government and KSRTC subsequently approached the Supreme Court challenging that decision.

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Before the Court, the state government argued that the disbursement of dearness allowance is a matter of policy, and that KSRTC has the authority to take decisions in this regard. KSRTC further contended that granting higher dearness allowance to retirees would lead to a significant financial burden.

However, the Supreme Court held that maintaining different rates of dearness allowance was unjustifiable, particularly in light of inflation.

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Senior Advocate V. Chidambaresh and Advocate Vipin Nair appeared for various trade unions in the case.