ORDER

Rabindranath Samanta, J. - This writ petition has been filed by the petitioners the State of West Bengal through the Chief Secretary and the Principal Secretary, Finance Department, Government of West Bengal, challenging the judgment and order dated 26.07.2019 passed by the West Bengal Administrative Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as the Tribunal) in O.A. No. 1154 of 2016.

2. Disgruntled at the inaction and discriminatory action on the part of the State towards grant of Dearness Allowance to its employees in terms of the West Bengal Services (Revision of Pay and Allowance) Rules, 2009 (in short ROPA Rules, 2009) the respondents Confederation of State Government Employees, West Bengal, Unity Forum, an organisation of the salaried employees of the State Government and two others namely Indranil Mitra and Gopal Majumder of the unions brought the aforesaid original application seeking the following reliefs:-

' a. A direction upon the respondents authorities to forthwith release the 50 % dearness allowance which is due upto January, 2006 immediately within a period of 1 (one) month from the date of receiving of the order;

b. A direction upon the respondent authorities to immediately comply with the report and the recommendations of the 5th Pay Commission Report positively and without fail within a period of 1(one) month from the communication of the order;

c. A direction upon the respondent authorities to release the 50% of Dearness Allowances as the State Government without releasing the 50% Dearness Allowances for mere eye-wash set up a 6th Pay Commission who recommended for 10% interim relief upon the basic pay. But, no whisper about due 50% Dearness Allowances and unless the Court intervenes into it there may be every possibility of forfeiture of that 50% due Dearness Allowances which is the penultimate goal and gain of the State Government and the applicants will suffer irreparable loss and injury;

d. The applicants pray for relief order directing the respondent authorities to grant 50% of the Dearness Allowances as that of the Central Government with arrear upto January, 2016 within a period of two weeks from the date of order;

e. Costs pertaining to this application and incidental thereto;

f. Such other further order or orders as Your Lordships may deem fit and proper.'

3. By the order dated 16.02.2017 the Learned Tribunal dismissed the application recording the following observations:-

' i. Payment of Dearness Allowance to the employees of the Government of West Bengal was absolute prerogative falling within the discretionary domain of the Employer (read the State government) and inaction and/or refusal on the part of former cannot result in denial of an accrued right of the Employee for getting Dearness Allowance;

ii. Though part of the recommendation of 5th Pay Commission might have been acted upon, it did not entail that as a necessary corollary the same had to be carried out to its logical conclusion;

iii. The issue of discrimination in the matter of payment of Dearness Allowance to the Employees of the State of West Bengal with their counterparts serving in Banga Bhawan at New Delhi and in Youth Hostel at Chennai including the Employees of West Bengal State Electricity Development Corporation, could not be grappled and no analogy on the basis of the same could be derived in this context.'

4. Feeling aggrieved by the order of dismissal of the application the respondent Nos. 1 to 4 preferred a writ petition being WPST No. 45 of 2017 before this Court and a Co-ordinate Division Bench by the judgment dated 31.08.2018 set aside the order of the Tribunal and remanded the matter back to the Tribunal for fresh adjudication on some issues framed by the Division Bench.

5. To discern the observations made by the learned co-ordinate Division Bench and the issues framed by it for adjudication it will be apposite to excerpt the relevant observations which are as under:-

' 82. In view of the discussions and observations made hereinabove, I