New Delhi: Noting that inflationary pressure does not discriminate between a serving employee and a pensioner, it affects both equally. Supreme Court On Friday, it was held that fixing different rates of increase in inflation linked dearness benefits for both the categories is arbitrary and cannot be allowed. A bench of Justices Manoj Mishra and Prasanna B Varale rejected the Kerala government’s decision to increase dearness allowance (DA) for State Road Transport Corporation employees by 14%, while dearness relief (DR) for its retired employees was increased only by 11%. “…Government order has increased the rate of DA by 14% and DR by 11% even though this increase is to serve a common objective, which is to reduce the hardship faced by serving employees and pensioners due to inflation. Undisputedly, inflation impacts both serving and retired employees equally… In our view, differentiating between the two on the basis of growth rate of DA and DR has no rational nexus with the objective to be achieved,” Justice Mishra said while admitting the plea of ​​senior advocates V Chitambaresh and Vipin Nair. The state had argued that serving and retired employees belong to different categories and different rates for them do not violate the right to equality. It said only financial reasons could justify it. The bench said, “There is no doubt that the financial crisis may be a guiding factor for postponing the distribution of certain benefits or justifying different dates for the implementation of benefit schemes. But once a decision is taken to provide certain allowances, as well as to increase them… fixing a higher rate of increase for serving people than for retirees, would be arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.“