In the press conference held soon after presentation of the Seventh Pay
Commission's Report, Justice Shri A. K. Mathur, Chairman of the
Commission, while giving highlights, had announced its recommendation of
the "One Rank, One Pension" (OROP) for the Civilian employees and for
the Para Military Forces. However, after going through the Report, it is
seen that there is no such recommendation at all in the Report. The
Commission has nowhere discussed the phraseology "one rank, one pension"
in the Report.
The pension formulation recommended by the Commission is that all past
pensioners shall first be fixed in the Pay Matrix being recommended by
it, on the basis of the Pay Band and Grade Pay at which they retired, at
the minimum of the corresponding level in the matrix. This amount shall
be raised, to arrive at the notional pay of the retiree, by adding the
number of increments he had earned in the corresponding pay scale from
which he had retired, at the rate of 3 per cent. Fifty per cent. of the
amount thus obtained would be the revised pension.
It would be seen that the Commission has recommended fixation of the
revised pension of the past pensioners on the basis of the pay scale, or
after 31-12-2005, Pay Band and Grade Pay from which they had retired
and not on the basis of the revised pay of the post from which they had
retired. The concept of OROP implies that it is the rank or post held by
the pensioner which determines his pension and not the pay scale. This
is because in many cases the pay scales have been up-graded after the
retirement of the pensioners as a result of Pay Commission's
recommendations or otherwise without any change in the rank or in the
nomenclature of the post held previously by them.
The formulation proposed by the 7th CPC will not remove the existing
disparity between the pension of the pre 01-01-2006 pensioners and those
retiring after this date. To take an example, prior to 1-1-2006, the
date from which the Sixth Pay Commission's recommendations were
implemented, the Members of the CBDT and CBEC were in the pay scale of
Rs. 24050-26000. The Sixth Pay Commission had recommended the
upgradation of their pay scale to the Apex Scale of Rs. 80,000 (fixed).
Pending consideration of this recommendation, the government fixed their
pension at Rs. 38,883 on the basis of the HAG+ scale of Rs.
75,500-80,000 which was the general replacement scale of Rs.
24050-26000. Subsequently, after considering the aforesaid
recommendation, the government upgraded the pay scale for Members, CBDT
and CBEC to the Apex scale of Rs. 80,000 (fixed) w.e.f. 24-12-2008. The
benefit of this up graded scale was denied to the Members who had
retired before this date. As a result of this, there is a disparity
between the pension of pre-2006 retired Members fixed at Rs. 38,883 and
the pension of Rs. 40,000 fixed for those retiring on or after
24-12-2008. This disparity has arisen due to the government stand that a
past pensioner is not eligible to the benefit of a pay scale which is
upgraded after his retirement, as he has not worked in that scale. Such a
disparity will continue even after the implementation of the
formulation recommended by the 7th CPC for the fixation of the pension
of the past pensioners since their pension will be fixed on the basis of
the pay scale from which they had retired and the benefit of revised
scale upgraded after their retirement will not be admissible to them.
The principle of OROP implies that the uniform pension should be paid to
all pensioners retiring in the same rank with the same length of
service, irrespective of the date of their retirement. Since the
formulation recommended by the Seventh Pay Commission will not bring
about uniformity in the pension of the past pensioners retiring in the
same rank on different dates, it would not be correct to say that the
Commission has recommended OROP for all civil pensioners.
Another glaring anomaly relating to pensioners is in the new Pay Matrix
which the Commission has proposed after dispensing with the existing
system of Pay Bands and Grade Pay which was introduced on the
recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission. In the proposed Pay Matrix,
in place of the existing Grade Pay, there are 18 distinct Pay Levels
which would henceforth be status determiner. Each Level lays down the
minimum pay, the annual pay progression of 3 per cent. and the maximum
pay. It is seen that the maximum pay in each Level exceeds the minimum
pay in the next higher Level. This is likely to create a situation in
which a person retiring from a higher Level will receive pension less
than a person retiring from a lower Level.
To take an example, A retired on 31-12-1995 in the pay scale of Rs
24,050-26,000. Before retirement, he had reached Rs. 26,000 with two
increments. The corresponding revised pay scale on 01-01-2006 is Rs
75,500-80,000. As per the proposed pension fixation, his pension will be
fixed in Level 16 at Rs. 1,08,950, being 50% of the revised pay of Rs.
2,17,900. Suppose, another person, B retires in Level 14 which has a pay
range of Rs 1,44,200-2,18,200. If on the date of retirement he is in
receipt of pay of Rs 2,18,200, his pension @ 50% of last pay will be
fixed at Rs 1,09,100. Thus, A who retired at the maximum of the pay
scale (which was equivalent to fixed pay of Rs 26,000 for Secretaries to
the Government of India)) will draw less pension than the officer who
is two levels below him.
In the case of M M P Sinha Vs. UOI (CW No. 10757 of 2010), the Patna
High Court has held that a person retiring from a higher grade cannot
draw less pension than a person retiring in a lower grade which grade is
the Feeder grade for the higher grade. While holding this, it has
relied on the Supreme Court judgment in the case of UOI Vs. S P S Vains
(2008) 9 SCC 125 in which the Apex Court had deprecated the situation in
which a Brigadier in the army was receiving higher pension than the
Major General and to correct the anomaly the government had stepped up
the pension of the Major General to show that the discrimination of a
junior getting a higher pension had been removed. While suggesting the
new Pay Matrix, the Commission has ignored these judicial
pronouncements. If the government accepts the Pay Matrix as suggested by
the Commission, there is bound to be unnecessary prolonged litigation
on the subject.
Another aspect of the proposed Pay Matrix which deserves mention is that
for the first time in the history of pay scale revision, the 7th CPC
has recommended down grading of HAG+ scale of Rs. 75,500-80,000. In the
proposed Pay Matrix, for Level 16, the maximum pay suggested is Rs.
2,24,000 which is less than the pay of Rs. 2,25,000 in Level 17 for the
Secretaries to Government of India. The maximum of the HAG+ pay scale,
as also of the earlier pay scales which it had replaced, has all along
been the same as the fixed pay scale of secretaries to the Government of
India. The Commission has not assigned any reason as to why they have
made such a radical departure from the past.
It is hoped that the government will remove the anomalies discussed above while taking a decision on the Commission's recommendation.
(KR Gupta is a former Member of CBDT )
Read at: The Economic Times
