No doubt Mr R V Ramesh as an enlightened senior retired officer of
LIC has highlighted all the relevant
points in our favour in his detailed post. There can be no disagreement on all
the arguments that he has adduced in justification for removal of DR anomaly
for pre-August 1997 retirees and upgradation of pension for all pensioners.LIC
in its Written Submissions has only written what is predictable ,viz,all the
reasons to deny what is just & legally due towards the pensioners not hesitating to
give misleading calculations in
their submissions.
But
the ground reality today is that
with the filing of Written submissions by petitioners & LIC after
the hearing is concluded and judgment being reserved, there can be no
action choice except to proceed with further required steps
after the judgment is delivered which can be expected any time between
10th
April & 28th April 2017.Till
then whatever we write, read or discuss about the strength of our case
points will only be
academic-may be of some use as and when
the case lands in the Supreme Court on a SLP by the aggrieved party. So
whatever has been argued by the counsel
representing the six Writ Petitioners would have definitely covered a
number of important points
mentioned by Mr Ramesh with appropriate emphasis on the relevant
Constitutional provisions in their arguments. Mr Ramesh may be
aware that the LIC counsel was also asked
to file additional written submissions with reference to the Hyderabad
Association’s Written Submissions
under our WP no 4894/2016.LIC filed their
additional written submissions on 31/3/2017 again stoutly defending
their grounds for denial of upgradation of pension.
Now it is for the Special Bench of Delhi High Court to weigh the facts
and
material before them taking into account the submissions of all the
parties in the
case and deliver the judgment.
Even
though initially Mr Nidhesh Gupta vehemently argued on violation of
Article 14 of
the Constitution, the questions raised in the course of the hearings
clearly
indicated that the Bench was also keen to be satisfied on the financial
affordability of the Corporation and safeguards to the bonus for the
policyholders also although there was apparently a strong case on
constitutional principles.So,we at Hyderabad Association had to back our
rejoinders to the LIC’s counter affidavits
with authentic financial data
on LIC’s soundness based on past trends
and reasonable projections for the future. The data were also utilized
admirably
well by Mr Nidhesh Gupta who also argued for our Association in the
latter part of the hearings in quite a
convincing manner.
Let us hope and pray that by now
there is sufficient material before the Bench in our favour that will result in
a favourable judgment which may be barely a fortnight away.
Greetings.
C H Mahadevan
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