A day after Punjab and Haryana High Court gave directions to the Punjab Government to clear the pending DA of its employees and pensioners, the Aam Aadmi Party government has said that its legal team is examining the judgement and the state’s constitutional rights, while considering to approach the higher court against the order.The order, when implemented, will cost the state exchequer Rs 20,000 crore.Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema today said that the government was surprised at the court order since the state government was following the liquidation plan to clear the dues, amounting to Rs 14,191 crore, already approved by the High Court earlier.“When the Sixth Punjab Pay Commission was implemented in Punjab in 2016, when the Akali-BJP alliance was in power, the Commission’s recommendations were delayed for implementation. It was only in 2022, just before the elections to the Vidhan Sabha were announced, that the then Congress government announced its implementation. However, they had then said that the arrears from 2016 to June 2022 were not to be released, only the higher pay grades were to be given. After some employees approached the court, the AAP government, which had assumed power then, submitted a liquidation plan to clear these dues of Rs 14,191 crore. In 2024-25, we cleared dues of all pensioners above 85 years of age. In 2025-26, we cleared dues of all pensioners above 75 years of age. Now, in the current year, we started clearing dues of the remaining pensioners and employees,” he said, adding that an amount of Rs 6,000 crore of these arrears has already been disbursed.The minister further said that some employees had approached the High court over pending DA. “We had told the Court that Punjab pays the highest pay scales in the country. We had submitted that we can either give the higher pay scales recommended by the state Pay Commission or pay the higher DA as given by the Central Government,” he said.“While we are committed to giving the rightful dues to the employees, all other aspects have to be considered. Our legal options are all open,” he said.