The Supreme Court on Tuesday reprimanded the Central government for failing to take any decision for years on the pension payable to retired regular captains of the Army, in accordance with the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme.
The Bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice R Mahadevan granted one ‘last opportunity’ to the Union of India till November 14, to resolve the anomalies regarding the pension of retired officers under the scheme.
It further imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on the Centre, directing that the cost shall be deposited in the welfare funds of the Army within four weeks.
Representing the Union government, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhatti said that six anomalies have been pointed out by the Kochi Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), which need to be rectified. She said the government was yet to take a stand in the matter.
Noting that the matter came up in 2021, the Bench reprimanded the Centre for taking years to make a decision. The Union government was then given two choices: either pay an enhanced pension by 10 percent or get ready for a cost to be imposed on them.
Bhatti replied that the government could not take a piecemeal decision, it had to look at the issue holistically and consider all the six anomalies as the decision may affect others. The ASG tendered an apology and sought three months to file an affidavit in the matter.
The Apex Court observed that this would not give solace to the retired officers and captains, who had no say and even did not have access to government officials.
It then started dictating the order for enhanced pension for the retired captains. At this point, the ASG asked the Court to impose a cost, saying that it would serve equity better than an enhanced pension.
The Bench granted time till November 14 to the Union of India as a last opportunity and also imposed a cost of Rs 2 lakh. It warned the government that if a decision was not taken by November 14, this Court would order enhanced pension by 10 percent to the retired regular captains.
The Apex Court then listed the matter for further hearing on November 25.
Earlier on July 23, the Apex Court had noted that the regional bench of the AFT had passed an order on December 7, 2021, according to which the government was to take a decision on the pension payable to the retired regular captains, noticing that there was an anomaly that required to be resolved for the implementation of OROP.
The Centre has challenged the AFT order and arrayed 13 retired regular captains as a party to the dispute.
The Bench noted that this court has repeatedly adjourned the matter to enable the appellant government to take a decision on the pension of the retired regular captains.
The top court of the country had warned the government that in the prevailing circumstances, it was inclined to impose exemplary costs on the Centre. It further directed the Union government to pay a 20 percent enhanced pension to regular captains from the date the OROP scheme was applicable.
However, it granted the last opportunity to enable the appellant to obtain instructions and listed the matter for further hearing on July 30.
The Central government introduced the OROP scheme in 2015. Under the scheme, the rate of pensions for past retirees was fixed at par with that for the current retirees of the armed forces.
However, certain anomalies came up over the lack of proper data on officers in the ranks of regular captains and majors since the minimum current rank of retirement to attain pensionable service was lieutenant colonel.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) appointed a One Man Judicial Committee (OMJC) to recommend the resolution of this anomaly in 2016, but no decision was taken by the ministry on the matter after that.
The Kochi Bench of the AFT subsequently directed the MoD to resolve the anomaly based on the OMJC’s recommendations in a time-bound manner. The Centre challenged the AFT order in the Supreme Court.