Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Pay arrears of pension to all Pre-2006 retiree Central Govt pensioners from 01 January 2006 rather than 24 September 2012 : Supreme Court
As most readers would know, there were anomalies in the fixation
of pension of pre-2006 central govt retirees with effect from 01 Jan 2006 and
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 judgements of the
Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) as well as Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT)
which inter alia ruled that
pension would be calculated on the basis of minima of each rank/grade
within the pay-band. The judgement of the CAT was challenged by the Govt before
the Delhi High Court. In the meantime however, the Govt itself removed the
anomaly but granted the benefits from 24 Sept 2012 rather than 01 Jan 2006
which was the date of the inception of the anomaly.
Hence the exact controversy now stood narrowed down to
whether the benefits of the correct pension were to flow from 01 Jan 2006 which
was the date from which the 6th Central Pay Commission recommendations were
implemented or from 24 Sept 2012 which was when the Govt had decided to remove
the anomalies in the pension structure after the said Pay Commission.
The controversy was finally resolved by the Delhi High
Court which directed that after removal of the anomaly, the pension arrears
were to flow from 01 Jan 2006 and not from the future artificial date of 24 Sep
2012. Never to respect well-rounded judicial verdicts, the Govt challenged the
decision of the High Court before the Supreme Court, however the Supreme Court
was pleased to dismiss the SLP filed by the Govt in July 2013. The
Govt then filed a review petition followed by a curative petition
alleging ‘gross miscarriage of justice’ but a 5 Judge Bench dismissed
the curative petition too.
The Govt however did not implement the decision across
the board and kept filing SLPs and Civil Appeals across the board against
decisions of judicial fora in favour of pensioners.
Ultimately, all these cases were clubbed together and were
finally heard today by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court has today dismissed all appeals filed
by the Union of India and upheld the decision of grant of arrears with effect
from 01 January 2006 rather than 24 September 2012.
The amount of basic pension which was made admissible from
24 September 2012 for each rank can be discerned from this Circular issued by the Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions). The said amount plus
applicable DA/DR would now be admissible from 01 January 2006.
Source:http://www.indianmilitary.info/
