‘PROTECTION’ FOR NEGATIVE ARREARS FOR A FEW CADRES CANNOT RENDER JUSTICE TO ALL PRE-AUGUST 1997 RETIREES
I attach a write-up referring to the Office Note prepared by LIC Central Office Personnel Dept on 18/9/2001 with remarks/recommendations/decisions by the Chairman as a precursor to the LIC Board Meeting held on 24/11/2001.
LIC was very much aware that the formula proposed for upgradation on 1/8/1997 was anomalous as negative values resulted in a few cadres from Record Clerks down to the Sweepers .Surprisingly this fact does not find a mention in the LIC Board Resolution and LIC has merrily adopted their proposed formula right from the time the illustrative chart was submitted to the Board, subsequently sent to the Joint Secretary (Insurance) on 31/12/2001 and also in an updated illustrative chart sent on 11/8/2003 with calculations as at 1/8/2003 to Mr G C Chaturvedi,Joint Secretary(Banking & Insurance).
The focus of LIC Management has all the time been merely on the 100% DR neutralization without removal of the pre-August 1997 DR anomaly and on a half-hearted upgradation on 1/8/1997 WITHOUT REMOVAL OF DR ANOMALY FROM 1/11/1993 AND WITHOUT THE WEIGHTAGE DECIDED UPON BY THE LIC BOARD ON 24/11/2001.
It took Jaipur Bench of Rajasthan High Court to take serious cognizance of the DR anomaly and come out with its judgment on 12/1/2010 to not only remedy this situation, but also allowing upgradation of pension. But LIC has continued to play its dubious game of selective misinterpretation of the Board Resolution without explicit reference to the three High Court judgments in favour of pensioners, for which stay was refused by the Apex Court. This has been corroborated by a few pensioners who have received unidentified credits to their bank accounts from LIC ostensibly in compliance of the Supreme Courts orders dt 7/5/2015 & 7/9/2015 for payment of interim relief to respondent-pensioners.
We have also known convincingly how there will be negative arrears for every family pensioner of a deceased pre-August 1997 retiree if LIC continues to follow their usual method of upgradation of pension for pre-August 1997 retirees.
Hopefully the game being played by LIC will get exposed before the watchful eye of the Supreme Court Bench today, and if not today, sooner than later.
Greetings.
C H Mahadevan
