It may be recalled that there were anomalies in the fixation of pension of pre-2006 Central government retirees with effect from January 1, 2006. The question was whether pension was to be calculated based on the minimum of each grade/rank within the newly-introduced pay-bands or on the minimum of the pay-band itself.
The said anomaly was resolved by way of judgments of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) as well as Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT). The judgment of the CAT was challenged by the government before the Delhi high court. In the meantime, however, the government itself half-heartedly removed the anomaly by granting the benefits from September 24, 2012 rather than January 1, 2006, which was the date of the inception of the anomaly. The verdict of the AFT was challenged by the government before the Supreme Court.
Hence the exact controversy now stood narrowed down to whether the benefits of the correct pension were to flow from January 1, 2006 which was the date from which the 6th Central pay commission recommendations were implemented or from September 24, 2012 which was when the government had decided to remove the anomalies in the pension structure after the said pay commission.
The controversy was resolved by the Delhi high court, which directed that after removal of the anomaly, the pension arrears were to flow from January 1, 2006 and not from the future artificial date of September 24, 2012. Never to respect well-rounded judicial verdicts, the government challenged the decision of the high court before the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court was pleased to dismiss the SLP filed by the government in July 2013.
Bent upon prolonging the agony of military and civil pensioners, the government has filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court challenging grant of pensionary benefits from January 1, 2006. The curative petition is not an ordinary remedy and is usually meant to cure “gross miscarriage of justice”. Hence by filing such a petition, the capable and worthy officers of our Central government ironically and indeed contemptuously, insinuate that the grant of correct and legal pension to its military and civil pensioners is “miscarriage of justice”.
Legal eagle Major Navdeep Singh (retd) has brought out the facts, which prove how our officialdom has reached its nadir and what a mockery it has made of the system by making judicial verdicts get overridden by administrative egotism. “So sad is the situation that executive pride overtakes what is logical, prudent or just. And the political executive remains a rudderless rubber-stamp,” states Major Singh.
“Ego-fuelled highhandedness is what the system is known for. How could the courts hold the hands of old pensioners? The government is always right. Government policies are sacrosanct and sacred, or so the system believes,” commented Major Singh. And hence government went in for a review petition before the Supreme Court urging the top court to review its order dismissing the Union of India’s SLP.
Meanwhile, without properly disclosing the dismissal of the SLP, the government filed many more similar petitions before the Supreme Court and got them tagged with the military pensioners’ matters which dealt with the same subject. The Supreme Court was pleased to dismiss the review petition filed by the government against the pensioners.
In any democracy, this would have meant closure to the agony of litigating pensioners. But no, that is not how things work in our country. The Union of India/Central government then filed a curative petition against the same verdict. The curative petition came up for hearing before a 5 judge bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, which was pleased to dismiss the same.
“But would this be closure to their agony?”, asks Major Singh, who is well versed with the attitude and tendencies of our babus. Since this cynical question was asked by Major Singh before the unprecedented 2014 elections, which brought in the new BJP government, then those pensioners for whom this matter is applicable can now dare to hope for some light at the end of a long tunnel. Because not only does the BJP’s manifesto include implementation of One Rank One Pension, the matter is on its 100 days list too. The Pay Commission Cell of Army HQs is expected to make a presentation to the new defence minister shortly. Further good news following President Pranab Mukherjee’s recent address is that he praised the armed forces and promised that the new government would: 1. Expedite modernisation. 2. Fill up vacancies. 3. Institute a National Commission for Veterans. 4. Have a National War Memorial constructed. 5. Grant One Rank One Pension. 6. Have zero tolerance towards terrorism. It is also heartening to hear from media that the Prime Minister’s Office has directed the home and defence ministries to ensure that all strategic decisions, specially those relating to the uniformed forces, should be taken only after detailed consultations with their top officers. Meanwhile, medals for bravery and service surrendered by of 32,000 ex-servicemen and war-widows remain deposited-22,000 with Rahtrapati Bhavan and 10,000 with Indian Ex-Serviceemen’s Movement and will not be accepted back till proper implementation of One Rank One Pension.
(Source: The Asian Age - 26 Jun 14)
*The current status of the SOCs on Rank Pay.
*The current status of the contempt petition on Rank Pay implementation.
*The current status of the matter associated with dismissal of curative petition.
*The actual status re DGL on OROP which was required to be furnished by services HQs as sought by CGDA.
With the post election stabilisation being over, and the summer vacation in Hon'ble Supreme Court now drawing to a close, some news could be expected to trickle in from various agencies involved, for the benefit of the large no. of stakeholders.
This update is a most welcome first step and a big relief in a prolonged famine of information.
Rank Pay Corrigendum: - (awaiting authentication by reply to RTI application dated 10 Jun 14) in the Rank Pay case is that the file has been re-submitted soon after MoF/DoE/E.III.A reply dated 06 Jun 14 that MoD withdrew the file before any action by MoF;
Contempt Petition: Impleadment of present Def Secy and CGDA filed on 18 Apr 14 and next date will probably be given when Apex Court reconvenes;
SAG-29 (Pensioners) Vs UoI; PB CAT in Contempt Petition No. 158 of 2012 heard after the Apex Court dismissed Curative Petition (C) No. 126 of 2014, had given UoI three months to implement the order;
OROP: DGL is to be prepared by CGDA and it appears that information projected in post above was what was told to Defence Minister who directed the Chairperson (the CGDA) of the Jt Working Group to convene a meeting and resolve the differences in the amounts as projected by Service HQ which is about 60% of the CGDA/PCDA (P) estimate; CGDA is yet to convene the meeting and hopefully it would be before the Chiefs meet the Defence Minister and later the Prime Minister, which would be taking place shortly.
An extract of Rajya Sabha Petition Committee Report is appended below:
"Deposition of Department of Expenditure (M/o Finance) (15th July & 1st August, 2011)
7. The Secretary (Expenditure) submitted that the figure relating to defence
personnel’s pension was being maintained in the Office of Controller General of Defence Accounts, which was under the administrative control of Ministry of Defence. He submitted that the figure, as available in the Office of Controller General of Defence Accounts, had been procured by the Ministry of Finance in accordance of which 1,300 crore approximately would be an immediate additional burden on Union Government in case ‘one rank one pension’ is given to ex-servicemen only prior to 01-01-2006. Mentioning break-up of 1,300 crores, he said that 1,065 crores would be given to the retirees belonging to the Posts Below Officer Rank (PBOR) and 235 Crores would be given to the retired Commissioned Officers. The said total figure would be increasing taking into account minimum 10% annual increase which would go to 1,430 crores in 2012-13, 1573 crores in 2013-14, 1,730 crores in 2014-15, 1,903 crores in 2015-16."
While implementing Modified Parity of Pension wef 24/09/2012, there was a propaganda of expenditure of 2300 crores which also appeared to be wrong in view of the estimates of this report. The amount on modified parity of pension has been paid after submission of Rajya Sabha Petition Committee Report and as such that expenditure should be reduced from the estimates of the report.
CGDA is certainly inflating the likely expenditure on account of OROP.
"..........but the said proposal was turned down by the officer of the Department of Expenditure on the ground of financial implications. Once the Central Government has accepted the principle of modified parity, the benefit cannot be denied on the ground of financial constraints and cannot be said to be a valid reason......"
The base date is now given as 1.1.2006 , is it not a disadvantage since we were expecting 31.3.3014 to be the date for calculation of pension?
Regards
There have been many enhancements and modified parities after 1.1.2006 - references of which have been given in the post above.
There is also the change that will have to be made after adding Rank Pay to the 5th CPC scales and then multilying that by 1.86 to get the 6th CPC pay band etc.
Increases may also need to be factored in on favourable ruling by the Apex Court on minimum of pay for each rank and increase to the extent of the deducted rank pay at the top of the integrated pay scale.