Phased Upgradation for Bank Pensioners

The demand made by the Bank Employees from the IBA in the meeting held yesterday  for pension upgradation in a phased manner  according to the BPS is shocking  to say the least.I wonder whether the Banks' Pensioner Fraternity as a whole is agreeable to the suggestion.Such upgradation in a phased manner will  not only be unconstitutional,but also unfair for pensioners at large.Mortality cuts across generations of pensioners.Pension Regulations 1995 of the various Banks cover all employees retired after 1/1/1986   together including those who automatically got covered after joining the Banks after the date of Notification in 1995 upto 31/3/2010.

First, I doubt whether the Central Government will agree to provide upgradation in a phased manner for different generations of retirees. If it does,it will create  separate classes of 

pensioners under the same Pension Scheme and will constitute discrimination amounting to violation of Article 14 of the Constitution as per the ratio of the Sup reme Court judgment  in D S Nakara case. If such  a fauty scheme of upgradation is put in place , not only the intended purpose will not be served,but spate of litigations can be expected immediately after such settlement. 

The more reasonable option is to provide upgradation in whatever manner it is agreed to in bipartite agreement  in a manner  that  will uniformly apply to all generations of pensioners  without discrimination.Cost of upgradation is no doubt a  critical factor  but as happened  in the case of OMOP for LIC employees, the  contribution towards additional liability has to be  amortized over  a period of 5 years or  any longer period as would be permissible under Accounting Standards. 

Phased upgradation of pension  is not only  unconstitutional but also blatantly unfair to pensioners who will be left out of such dispensation. Selective upgradation is nothing  but betrayal of majority of pensioners.

All the Bank Employees' Associations and  Bank Pensioners' representative bodies need to seriously ponder over the matter.

C H Mahadevan