High court fines Union government Rs 3 lakh for filing 'baseless' pleas against CAT order

BHOPAL/JABALPUR: A division bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court has dismissed as many as 30 petitions filed by the Jabalpur ordnance factory against Central Administration Tribunal (CAT) order in favour of the factory employees. HC also imposed Rs 3 lakh fine on the Union govt for filing 'baseless' petitions.

The Sixth Pay Commission had asked for inclusion of house rent allowance, travelling allowance and small family allowance in calculating the overtime (OT) allowance of the employees. However, when recommendations of the sixth pay panel were implemented, it was not done. Several employees of the ordnance factories across MP had moved the CAT branch at Jabalpur to claim the OT amount denied to them.

The tribunal, in its order on March 24, 2025, asked for payment of the remaining amount to the employees. However, the field unit of Jabalpur ordnance factory filed 30 separate petitions challenging CAT's decision.

During hearing of the petitions on Thursday, the division bench of justices Vivek Agarwal and A K Singh dismissed all the petitions and imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 each petition on the Union govt, which shall go in the account of employees' welfare fund.