Pension News – Retired Central Employees Win War in Supreme Court – Alas! Stalled by the Govt.
Three
decades after their battle began, and despite a victory in the Supreme
Court in September, several thousand retired central government
employees are yet to get their pension restored.
Unwilling to let the octogenarians
celebrate with pension benefits, the Centre filed a review petition in
the top court last month and decided to implement the restoration
subject to its outcome. The Union ministry of personnel, public
grievances and pensions issued an office memorandum on December 21to
give former central government employees who had litigated for years,
including K Ganesan, a spearheading litigant who died during the
process, this bittersweet news.
The issue centres around a pension rule
that permitted central government employees to shift en masse from the
1960s to the 1980s to public sector undertakings (PSUs) that needed
experienced workers at the time. To aid and promote the move, the Centre
allowed the employees to avail of 100% lump sum pension in advance for
15 years.
The rules had till then permitted a
partial one third commutation. Acomplicated formula is at work for
pension calculations.Essentially, such employees who had claimed a lump
sum upfront in a particular year, went on to fight for restoration of
pension (effectively arrears) as per service years, after accounting for
the lump sum payment made earlier. The issue was a fight against
effective downgrade of pension slabs.
Several legal battles ensued, beginning
in 1983. In 1987, the SC first allowed one-third restoration for
Central govern ment employees after a 15-year period, and a decade later
extended the benefit to those who had shifted to PSUs.
K Ganesan, who was with the finance
ministry and in 1986 moved to BHEL, a PSU, after availing of lump sum
pension in advance, launched a fight in the Madras high court.In 2007,
the court upheld the plea.
It significantly held that the Centre
cannot wipe away the rights of an employee for restoration. It said an
employee remains a pensioner under the Pensions Act, 1871. Navi Mumbai
resident Satish Kate, part of another association and who worked with
the Indian Bureau of Mines and retired in 2006 from Indian Oil
Corporation, is among those awaiting restoration.
“Many of the 7,000-odd pensioners are
aged over 80. They may not live to enjoy pension in their lifetime if
the legal battle continues,” he said. “The SC order applies to all of us
who were absorbed by PSUs.The PM heads the ministry of personnel,
public grievances and pension.”
Source: TOI
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