GIST OF TALKS WITH MD SrI SAT PAL BHANOO

I refer to para iv of your message as follows:

"iv)LIC has to honour the KERALA HIGH COURT Judgement as per which CO issued the Circular for Class I Officers retired between 1/8/1992 to 31/3 1993 to allow 1 increment & pay Arrears ..........."

I presume that you  are referring to the judgment of Kerala HC judgment dated 7/2/2024. The judgment only  directed LIC to notionally fix the basic pay as per the scales effective from 1/8/1992 as per wage revision notified on 18/7/1996 and refix the pension and pay arrears from 1/11/1993.There is no mention of allowing one increment in the judgment and I am not aware of the CO Circular issued allowing one increment to Class I retirees from 1/8/1992 to 31/3/1993.

If you have a copy of the CO Circular,  I shall thank you to send the same.

When I calculated revised pension in some cases in the category of retirees/pensioners, I found that the officers who retired on 31/8/1992 and 30/9/1992 actually suffered  reduction in gross pension even upto the latest date due to the average emoluments being very low due to 8 and nine months of basic pay having been reckoned at pre-revision scales despite addition of DA for pre- revision period.So for these two dates of retirement, there would be recoveries if Kerala HC judgment is applied literally.

Besides, even though some difference of Commutation value of one-third basic pension on account of revision was also payable, because of the recoveries for 15 years from October 1995, the amount recoverable   also exceeded the amount payable in all cases even for officers who retired from October 1992 to March 1993 for the reason that the  interest was not added in calculations of difference in Commutation value.The Kerala HC judgment was silent on this as it was an actuarial issue not obvious to the Court.

LIC also took advantage of this and denied arrears to many retirees and paid lower amount of arrears to many others out  of 325+ retirees, many of whom had died.

All this  boils down to the inevitability of upgradation of pension with every wage revision.Once it is done, difference in Commutation value of pension becomesirrelevant and the arrears of pension upto the latest  period with latest revised pension as per 1/8/2022 scales will more than offset the loss suffered  by the retirees.Already the retirees surviving in this category  are aged 89 to 91.

As on date it is not clear how many out of the 325+ pensioners have been paid arrears as per the Kerala HC judgment. 

C H Mahadevan