The Supreme Court by its
Judgement dated 31-03-2016 had asked Delhi High Court to consider the legal
validity of Rule 3(A) of Appendix IV of the LIC Pension Rules, 1995. The other
two High Courtsviz Jaipur and Chandigarh were asked to transfer the files
relating to the case to DHC. Accordingly hearing in DHC commenced after some
delay as they could not get the relevant files on time. The time given by SC to
deliver the Judgement was up to 31-08-2016. However, this time limit extended
twice by the SC and it was upto 30-04-2017.
The main issues before the two
judge bench of the DHC were :
1.
To consider the correctness or otherwise of the
payment of 20% / 40% Interim Relief paid by LIC in view of the SC orders dated
07-05-2015 / 31-03-2016.
2.
To decide the Constitutional validity or
otherwise of the Rule 3(A) of Appendix IV of LIC Pension Rules, 1995 in the
light of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
The Delhi High Court after
hearing the arguments from both the sides, decided the First issue in favour of
LIC and said that LIC's calculation is correct since Rule 3(A) deals only with
the Dearness Relief and does not deal with fixation of Basic Pension. This
Judgement was delivered on 11-11-2016.
The Second issue which was more
important to the Pensioners, the arguments commenced and Sr. Advocates
representing the Unions argued forcefully for upgradation of Pension. LIC came
down heavily objecting to this argument with statistics – contested by Unions –
that it will be a huge burden to LIC and they cannot afford upgradation. It was
agreed by the Actuary of LIC, who was on witness stand, that they have taken
into account the future wage revisions and also the pension payable to the
serving 90,000 employees on their retirement.
The DHC delivered its Judgement
on the Second issue on 27-04-2017, the full text of which has already been sent
to you which runs into 90 pages. I have also read the Judgement only once. It
requires to be read and reread to arrive at the correct interpretation.
However, since it is going to take much time, I thought I will give my
impression on reading the Judgement only once and too in a haste.
1.
The Judgement says for Basic Pension above
Rs.2130/- to Rs.3850/- for those retired between 01-01-1986 to 01-11-1993 DR of
0.17% now paid, should be enhanced to
0.29%. and are to be paid 0.23% DR from 01-08-1997.
2.
For those retired between 01-11-1993 to
31-08-1997 whose Basic Pension is above Rs.3850/- the DR should be paid @
0.23%.
3.
For those retirees who are paid the Minimum
Basic Pension as announced by LIC in the Pension Rules, their minimum Basic
Pension should be enhanced with respective dates of Wage Revision and DR
applicable to that period should be paid on the revised MBP – if the MBP+DR
paid to them is lower than the Revised MBP.
4.
There shall not be any refund by the retiree of
40% of the IR already paid to him/her.
5.
Corporation to recalculate the Pension as per
the Court Judgement within 9 months from the date of receipt of this Judgement
and arrears, if any, are payable from the date of First Writ Petition filed
(i.e. from 1998).
6.
No interest on arrears is payable if they are
paid within ONE YEAR from the date of receipt of Judgement, else 8% interest is
payable.
This is impression I got from a
first casual reading of the DHC Judgement. You have already been supplied with
Original Judgement. You can go through the same and discrepency in the above
may please be pointed out to me on my email id.
C
T JOSHI.
VIJAYAPUR
28-04-2017
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Posted By Blogger to PENSIONERS' VOICE & SOUND TRACK Editor: R K Sahni on 5/14/2017 06:50:00 pm
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