Less than two months after a single bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed Punjab to grant dearness allowance/dearness relief to its employees and pensioners at parity with the rates applicable to members of the All India Services, a division bench on Monday issued notice of an appeal against the order.Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri and Justice Amarjot Bhatti also fixed July 1 for further hearing in the matter, while taking up the petition filed by Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) against the petitioner employees.The bench was told that the appeal had its genesis in a judgment dated April 8 passed by the single judge, whereby the writ petition was allowed and directions issued to the state of Punjab to grant dearness allowance/dearness relief to its employees and pensioners at parity with the rates applicable to members of the All India Services, along with directions for the release of pending instalments within a stipulated timeframe.The appellant contended that the impugned judgment proceeded on the premise that employees and pensioners of the State had an enforceable right to claim DA/DR on a par with the central government or AIS officers.“It is respectfully submitted that such a premise is fundamentally erroneous, as neither the Punjab Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2009 nor 2021 provide for automatic or time-bound parity with Central Government DA rates. In the absence of any statutory mandate, no enforceable right accrues to warrant issuance of a writ of mandamus,” the appellant contended.It was added that the single judge also failed to appreciate that the grant, timing and manner of disbursement of DA/DR were a matter of executive policy, dependent upon financial capacity and budgetary prioritisation.The state had neither denied DA/DR nor acted arbitrarily. Rather, it has consistently extended the benefit in a phased and calibrated manner and has already released DA up to 119 per cent.