The Supreme Court came down heavily on the Centre on Tuesday 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 and imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on it.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and R Mahadevan gave one last opportunity to the Centre till November 14 for resolving the anomalies with regard to the pension of such retired officers under the scheme. It said the cost of Rs 2 lakh shall be deposited in the welfare funds of the Army and warned the government that if the decision is not taken by November 14, it will direct for enhanced pension by 10 per cent to the retired regular captains. It listed the matter for further hearing on November 25.
Appearing in the court on behalf of the Centre, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhatti said six anomalies have been pointed out by the Kochi bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), which needs to be rectified, but the government is yet to take a stand in the matter. The bench said, "For how many years will this go on? Either you pay an enhanced pension by 10 per cent or we are imposing a cost on you. We wanted a decision to be taken, but you have not taken it. This matter came up in 2021 but still no decision has been taken."
Bhatti said the government cannot take a piecemeal decision, it has to look at the issue holistically and consider all the six anomalies as the decision may affect others. "All I can do is tender my apology. Please give us one more chance, we will take a decision in this regard. We will file an affidavit in this regard. Give us three months' time, we will take a decision," the additional solicitor general said.
The bench initially refused to give any further time to the Centre and accept any affidavit and said it will direct an enhanced pension to these retired officers. Justice Khanna said, "What is this? If the government is not taking a decision, I cannot do anything. This does not give solace to these officers. They are retired captains. They have no say. They have no access to you people. Either you start paying 10 per cent more or pay the cost. The choice is yours."
As soon as the bench started dictating the order for enhanced pension for the retired captains, Bhatti asked it to kindly impose a cost because that will serve equity better than enhanced pension.
The bench then gave time till November 14 to the government as a last opportunity but imposed a cost of Rs 2 lakh on it, saying the amount has to be deposited in the welfare fund of the armed forces in four weeks. On July 23, the top 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. "In these circumstances, we are inclined to impose exemplary costs and also direct that the regular captains will get pension enhanced by 20 per cent from the date the OROP scheme is applicable. However, as a last opportunity to enable the appellant to obtain instructions, re-list on July 30," the bench had said in its July 23 order.
The root of the dispute lies in the OROP scheme introduced by the Centre in 2015. Under the scheme, the rate of pensions for past retirees were fixed at par with that for the current retirees of the armed forces.
However, certain anomalies crept in the pension tables for captains and majors for the lack of proper data of the officers in the ranks of regular captains and majors since the minimum current rank of retirement to attain pensionable service is lieutenant colonel.
The Ministry of Defence 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. Subsequently, the Kochi Bench of the AFT directed the ministry to resolve the anomaly based on the OMJC's recommendations in a time-bound manner.
However, the Centre challenged the AFT order in the Supreme Court.
