Removal of para 3A cannot be an issue.Para 3A deals with the rate of DR for employees retired from 1/8/1997 , the effective date of wage revision vide notification issued on 22/6/2000 ,which was fixed as 0.23% by the Central Government. Para 3B authorized the Corporation to fix the rate of DR on future wage revisions from 1/8/2002 onwards.The wage revision effective on 1/8/2002 was notifified in 2005.With the issue of that notification,Para 3A clearly came to be related to the employees retired or dead between 1/8/1997 and 31/7/2002.The said Para is continuing to be in operation for the retirees of the said period just as Para 3B is in operation for retirees of subsequent wage revision periods from 1/8/2002(at 0.18%),1/8/2007(at 0.15%),1/8/2012(at 0.10%) and 1/8/2017(0.08%).All these are according to the Pension Rules 1995 as they stand amended after all wage revisions thanks to Para 3A & Para 3B.So where is the question of deleting Para 3 A?If Para 3 A is deleted ,what DR will be paid to Group 3 pensioners?If Para 3A is deleted,Para 3B will also have to be deleted and there will be an impasse in payment of pension without a valid rate of DR.Having merged DA on wage revision dates with basic pay,the DR on pension has to be definitely lower/different than/from that for the previous period retirees.It is another matter if pension upgradation is provided with every wage revision( for which we are legally fighting) when there will be one rate of pension and one rate of DR for all pensioners.
It will be therefore futile to treat Para 3A as a villainous element in our Pension Rules,but rather use that para to achieve our purpose.Para 3A equalised DA/DR for serving employees and retirees from 1/8/1997 unlike in the earlier period.Para 3A was interpreted in a manner that facilitated revision of basic pension for pre- August 1997 retirees from 1/8/1997 as per decision taken in the LIC Board Resolution dated 24/11/2001 which was also demonstrated in the payment of 40% interim relief following the SC judgment dated 31/3/2016. In fact the interpretation of Para 3A by LIC to prepare illustrative charts sent to GOI after the Board Resolution and payment of 40% IR in 2016 as per SC judgment prove that LIC has conceded that pension can be revised on 1/8/1997 which is the foundation for upgradation of pension for all pensioners with evey wage revision.There are other strong grounds as well to press our demand for upgradation of pension.
By going on a wrong track,we should not end up by losing a winning case(according to me notwithstanding any possible disagreements)in SC.
So my humble opinion is that we should not create a hype on Para 3A as one to be deleted from the Pension Rules or to be challenged for its constitutional validity.
C H Mahadevan
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