The Union of India had filed a counter affidavit against our Writ Petition in September where they had stated that the recommendations made in the Board Resolution were not accepted.When I made an application under RTI for a copy of the letter of rejection from the Central Government, I received a reply as per the attached letter in which they have stated that the information is based on my own assumption and does not constitute 'information' under Section 2(f) of RTI Act 2005.
Does this reply mean that they consider my assumption wrong?If my assumption is wrong then it means that the Central Government has not rejected the recommendations and also not confirmed such rejection by a letter to LIC.If my assumption was in fact correct, LIC would have furnished a copy of the letter of rejection from the Central Government so that it will also strengthen their position in the Civil Appeals before the Supreme Court.
The counter affidavit only states that the recommendations were not accepted.It does not automatically mean they were rejected.The only inference can be that they are still pending decision without acceptance.
So I take it as an evidence to show that there is no official rejection so far of the Board Recommendations and the Board Resolution recommending upward revision of pension w e f 1/8/1997 and applying the rate of DR of 0.23% on the pension so revised is very much alive.The logical corollary will be the same approach will have to be extended for all retirees who retired after 1/8/1997 over the next five wage revisions upto 1/8/2022.
We need to brief our Senior Counsels on this point.
C H Mahadevan
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