Shri Mahadevan’s
expertise in exposing the appellant’s wrong calculation intentionally or not in
arriving the amount to be remitted in the court registry should wake us from
hibernation and become more alert to face the SC hearing on 23 SEPTEMBER.
ARIEF’s move
to implead into the case is a wise decision at the right time. Their clarion
call to its members for donation towards legal expense although welcome may get
a luke warm response as already they have doled their contribution to Shri
Asthana for the same purpose. However the response could be good if a joint
call is given unitedly by the various officers association under a common
banner and under a common bank account to be supervised by their appointed representative.
Who is to bell the cat ?. In this electronic age Video conferencing and Whatapp
has become handy and could be utilized for someone to take the initiative.
Collective wisdom should prevail, ego and jealousy given a go by. I am reminded
of the second world war , to combat the German on slought and their enviable and supreme fire power Winston Churchill
took up the lead and to orchestrate the forming of an allied force to defeat a
common enemy. But for this history should have been written in a different way.
Calling for the shot at the right moment and taking timely action is the need
of the hour. Petitioners in the cases being benefited though not fully by the
SC ORDER it is the pensioners at large, who are left high and dry, many of them
being in the sun set of their life.
However much
the court order is clearer, LIC on its own will hesitate to act unless they get the briefing from the Finance ministry.
This has become apparent in MC Jain case. DB of Jaipur HC has dismissed the
appeal by LIC , vacated the stay and ordered the appellant to refix the pay
scale of the petitioner with all consequential benefits. That similarly placed
pensioners (who are hardly 98 in number) should also lawfully get the benefits
in accordance with the ruling in SC NO Appeal(Civil) NO 1289/2007 : Vide
paragraph 25 of the judgment which ruled that” revision of scales of pay as
also other allowances are technical in nature. When a benefit is extended to a
group of employees, the effect of such benefit, if otherwise comes within the purview
thereof must be held to be applicable to other groups of employees also “But
when ED( P ) was approached to take action he passed the buck to the CO Legal
department for clearance and they have not done it under some pretext or other.
Is the Legal DEPT competent to change law, alter or amend a court order or is there
another bench siting in the Legal Dept. to give its own verdict ?
To the
suggestion that we may engage a high profile lawyer who has to get a thorough
grasp of the earlier proceedings whether it will be wise to change the horse in
the mid-stream at this juncture. Instead the counsels in different suits should
work in unison and we have in our midst men of sufficient legal knowledge, some
of them practicing in the bar also could give valid inputs for the arguments in the final hearing
DIVIDED
SHOULD NOT WE TO FALL UNITEDLY
R.K.VISWANATHAN
