The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to give a comprehensive note mentioning what exactly has been done and what they will do relating to the disbursement of arrears to eligible pensioners of the armed forces as per One Rank One Pension Scheme (OROP).
The top court pulled up Ministry of Defence and said that they cannot take law in its own hands by issuing such communication on OROP arrears payment in four installments. The top court asked the minsitry to withdraw its January 20 communication relating to OROP arrears payment.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud asked the Centre to give a detailed plan mentioning how much time is left for getting a pension as per the OROP scheme and what is the prioritisation.
The court also recommended taking into account the various aspects including the oldest people and widows and making a category relating to these.
Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for Centre, said that they will do it but need some more time.
The Centre apprised the court that out of 28 lakhs, seven lakh applications have been cleared.
Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for the petitioner, submitted before the court that they seem to have enough money for other things but don’t have money for pensioners.
He also apprised that the four lakh pensioners have died during the pendency of the OROP matter.
The court expressed concern and said that it is very sad that pensioners have died due to the pendency of the matter.
The court listed the matter for further hearing next week.
In the last hearing, the court pulled up the Ministry of Defence over passing a unilateral notification extending the time for payment of OROP arrears to retired army personnel.
The court had observed that the Defence Ministry has earlier sought an extension, which was granted by the top court by order dated September 16, 2022. A further extension was granted in January 2023 for three months, the court noted.
“Centre has issued a notification later in January this year that arrears on account of the revision of pension from July 1, 2019, till the date of its implementation shall be paid by the Pension Disbursing Agencies in four instalments. However, the government has also said that it will pay arrears in one instalment to all the family pensioners including those in receipt of special or liberalized family pensions and all gallantry award winners,” the bench noted.
An application was filed by Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) in the Supreme Court challenging government notification.
The court had said how can the department modify it when the court passed an order to pay the arrears by March this year.
The court had remarked that this is not war but it is under the rule of law and warned the Ministry of Defence that it may issue a contempt notice, asking them to set its house in order.
Earlier on November 7, 2015, the decision to implement OROP was taken by the Narendra Modi government with benefits effective from July 1, 2014.
OROP was a long-standing demand of the armed forces and implies that retired soldiers of the same rank, who have retired after serving for the same length of service, will receive the same pension, irrespective of the date and year of their retirement.
Earlier the top court dismissed the review petition which had challenged its decision on the One Rank One Pension” policy.
The review petition was moved in the Supreme Court challenging the top court judgement delivered in March last year.
The Supreme Court in March last year had uphold the Centre Government decision on One Rank One Pension as it said that the OROP definition is not arbitrary and it does not find any constitutional infirmity in the OROP principle as defined by the communication dated November 7, 2015.
