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Thursday, June 4, 2009

Non-revision of pension of post 1-1-06 retirees : High Court issues notice

The Hon’ble Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued a notice of motion to the PCDA(P) and other authorities for not revising the pensions of post 01 Jan 2006 retirees. A civil writ petition in this regard was filed by Brig P S Sanghera, a retired Sapper officer.

The Ministry of Defence had issued orders for revising the pensions of pre-1-1-06 retirees on 11 Nov 2008 and post 1-1-06 retirees on 12 Nov 2008. Though the pensions of pre-06 pensioners were revised in accordance with the new 6th CPC scales immediately thereafter, the post-06 retirees till date are being released pensions at 5th CPC scales. Even other retiral benefits of post-06 retirees have not been configured and released in accordance with the new scales. Certain officers who retired after 01 January 2006 have pegged their dues from the PCDA (P) at more than Rs 30 lacs.

Even the Sainik Welfare department of the Punjab Govt has communicated the predicament of post-06 pensioners to the MoD and related authorities. The department has reminded the Central Govt that all pay records of defence personnel are computerized and in this particular light the delay in fixation of pension as per the new scales is perplexing. It has also been conveyed to the authorities that the Presidential sanction for pension revision was issued in November last year but till date the pension of such retirees has not been re-fixed in accordance with the orders.

25 comments:

A B Mehta said...

There are some cases of even the Pre-2006 retiree Group Captains who have not been refixed based onPB4 and still getting the +40% pension. SBI, at least, has not issued the Annexure IV and thus PCDA would be unaware of the real situation. It is high time that PCDA issues the corrigendums to the original PPOs without delay.

A B Mehta said...

Through the columns of your blog I would like you or any of the visiting bloggers to please advice me on the following:
We were given approximately 6 months of antedate when we were commissioned as some of us were Engineering graduates. I was absorbed in a PSU and had to take premature retirement. Consequently my qualifying service from the ACTUAL date of commission was 1 yr short for the Gp Capt rank. With antedate it would have been only one month short and I would have got full pension.
Is antedate also available to calculate the qualifying service?

Gp Capt A B Mehta

Anonymous said...

The issue could be squared off -if CDA(O) and PCDA are made to pay 18% penal interest for the delayed period, in line with the Government way of working. Any one taking up this cause...

Anonymous said...

The affected people must be paid thier dues with the interest. And this interest must be chraged from the pocket of the people responsible for delaying all these dues.

Lt Col S Kailasam(Retd) said...

I fully agree with this subject matter. Firstly there is no time bound action by the CDA(O) to issue Revised LPC. Even after the despatch of Revised LPC by CDA(O)on its own time,(that too , without taking any action on the option exercised by the pensioner to fix the pay from the date of promotion to avail maximum benefit) the PCDA(P) has not yet taken any action on the LPC to re-fix the pension and release of retirement benefits. The arrears amount of retirement benefit involved in the case of post Jan 2006 retiree is huge even at the rate of 40% (First installment) which was supposed to be released in 2008-09.I don’t know how much time the CDA(O) will take for re-fixation of pay followed by preparation of second revised LPC and subsequent action by the PCDA(P) for re-fixation of pension / release of retirement benefits(Revised PPO) accruing due to grant of PB-4 to Lt Col retired after 01 Jan 2006 since the initial orders have not yet been executed till date . Thanks to Brig P S Sanghera. At least things may now move forward with the action taken by the Brig in common interest of the Veteran. After having been brought up and served maximum part of one’s life time in a time bound manner for each and every action, accepting the delay which involves financial aspect and seriously affect the morale of Ex-Servicemen is very painful.

Anonymous said...

Dear Maj Navdeep Singh,
Iam Sqn Ldr M Abdul Rahim was medically boarded out from IAF w.e.f.,23 Jan 2008.Now after completion 14 months only i got my pension order that also to my previous rank(FLT.LT) also i have received Service Elements of Disability pension in as per Vth cpc scales further i dont know how long more months will take my disability Elements also pension for Sqn Ldr also all my pension as per VIth cpc scales. Can you please advise me how to move further to get my pension also is there any provision to demand 12% interest on delayed pension for more than one year.
Thanking you
Sqn Ldr M Abdul Rahim(Retd)

Anonymous said...

There is certainly a need for the government to fix time limits by which any dues must be paid to the beneficiaries.
If any benefits are paid beyond that stipulated period, the beneficiaries must be paid interest at the highest payble rate. ( coluld be in line with interest paid on I.T.refunds).

Anonymous said...

i agree with anony@ 7.00. CDAs also should be held accountable! wonder what lame excuse they have not to pay the DA & arrears inspite of the DA @ 6% being announced 2-3 months back. have the staff of CDA pune received the hiked DA? since when? in this age of computerisation, why the delay? & why does it have to wait for the next monthly pay? why not pay the moment it is finalized- say for sums more than Rs 7500, as is applicable for TA/DA claims.
i vote that all stations should have account depts, like the air force. CLOSE DOWN CDA(o)PUNE

Penmil said...

@ Group Captain Mehta at June 4, 2009 9:02 AM .
The Actual Qualifying Service is arrived at by counting from the actual date of commission.Ante date of service is not reconned towrds computing pension or gratuity.
The Pension Payment Orders (PPO) issued by the CDA used to mention Net Qualifying Service in the text, which is the sum of Actual Qualifying Service and the Weightage admissible as per the Substantive Rank at the time of retirement.
But after the issue of new rules of pensions for the Pre 2006, the Weightage is not to be added to the Actual Qualifying Service, since the tables at Annexure II are already in -built with the Weightage.
Hence the Pension Disbursing authorities were in need of the Actual Qualifying Service, instead of the Net Qualifying Service recorded in the PPOs..
CDA have now issued corrigendums to the old PPOs mentioning the Actual QualifyingService and deleting the Net Qualifying Service.
Probably this(non availability of Actual Qualifying Service) was the resaon for paying pension as per Annexure I instaed of Annexure II ( where it was more beneficial).
The pension will be rectified either after receipt of the revised PPO or after your explanation to the PDA.
Hope this answers your question.

A B Mehta said...

Thanks Penmil. Yr comments clarify my case regarding antedate.

PCDA should have been more proactive in clarifying the likely confusion at the PDAs rather than just forwarding Govt letters.

Anonymous said...

CDA charges us penal intrest on excess advance taken by us.Now CDA must pay the same intrest as they have defaulted.Will the court slap that on defaulting CDA officials who have failed to do their work?

Anonymous said...

It is a good move that some body has filed Writ petition for mandamus to authorities, even they are not releasing the arrears of VI pay commission for which every thing is finalised.It is nothing but a mischief on the part of authorities. We wish some body should go to High Court for panel interest on with held amount.

Penmil said...

@ Gp Capt AB Mehta,June 4, 2009 10:06 PM
I agree with you.The Department of Ex Service Men's Welfare in MOD might be new and be consisting of officers on deputation , like all other Central Staffing Schemes.They might not have envisaged all contingencies that would arise.
But CDA is with the military for centuries and should have noticed the deficiencies in the MOD pension letter of 11/11/2008.
The table at Annex II Table I, was incomplete. It should have had another column with each rank, on the weightage yeras of service corresponding to the actual qualifying years in the first column.
It should have had a column for TS ranks in addition to the colonels ranks.
PCDA Circular 397 attempted to fill in the missing information . But the weightage for each substantive rank was still missing.
PCDA itself must make the PPO very comprehensive with all the data that is available on the Service Certificate( and even more), about the pensioner, the spouse and dependent children etc to cater for new criteria for pension/family pension that keep coming up as years pass by .
The PPO must be in a soft format so that /PDA banks can easily transfer data into their programmes.
Thanks for pointing it out.

Anonymous said...

We have been pointing a finger only on CDA(O) so far for delayed payments. Many banks pay dues to many pensioners with undue delays.No one has any time frame.It is high time that some time frame is fixed and accountability is imbibed in our systems at all levels.Penalty be laid down for delays .Even provisions for jail terms may be
included for undue delays.Probably then only some improvements may happen.

Anonymous said...

i suppose the sainik welfare officers in maharashtra are the worst off as far as pay and status is concerned!! they are at par with naib tehsildars and in PB 2 pay band!!! so much to say about welfare huh!!

Penmil said...

@Gp Capt AB Mehta,June 4, 2009 10:06 PM.
There was an error in my understanding of the reconning of ante date of service in arriving at the 'Actual Qualifying Service'.Ante date upto a maximum of 18 months is indeed added to the service, to arrive at the 'Actual Qualifying Service'.
Since ante date is granted with effect from the date of completion of training, and since the training period is( normally) 18 months, the effect of adding ante date to the actual date of commission gets neutralized and effectively the actual service is also the 'actaul qualifying service' for most of the officers.
Hence the misunderstanding.
I checked up the PCDA link on the subject of 'Actual Qualifying Service' on the 'Report My Signal' blog.
My apologies for the error.
Regards.

Ata Hasnain said...

Through this very informative blog I seek clarification regarding my father's pension and arrears, if some one has the time to analyse the issue. I am a second generation serving officer and my father also retired as a Maj Gen. As on 01 Jan 2006 he was 88 years old - thus 30% enhanced pension was due in fixation. He retired on 27 Nov 1971, making him a pre 2006 retiree. He was being paid 21058/- as on 01 Apr 2008 before SPC came into effect, so I do not know what his fixed basic pension was 01 Jan 2006 since I am not aware of the DA of that time.

As per my knowledge his pension should be fixed at RS 25487/- as per Annx II of the Govt letter dated 20 Jan 2009. Add to this 30% age enhancement which makes it 33133/-. On this what percentage of DA should be applied progressively from 01 Jan 2006 till 01 Jan 2009 when 22% DA has been granted to Pensioners.

On 01 Dec 2007 he crossed the age of 90 which gives him pension enhancement of 40% over the 01 Jan 2006 fixation which makes his basic pension 35681/- plus 22% DA from 01 Jan 2009.

While calculating arrears I am primarily stuck on the issue of DA as applicable progressively from 01 Jan 2006. Kindly illuminate me on this.

I suppose arrears in the real sense should be calculated only till 01 Sep 2008 of which 40% have been paid. I should be looking at the enhanced value of 40% arrears on the basis of the new fixation plus age enhancement. The balance 60% should be brought to the notice of the bank/PDA for payment as an when released. However, the difference arising after 01 Sep , I suppose, should be paid by the Bank/PDA immediately.

My father's date of commission was 28 Feb 1943.

Am I correct in my understanding and shouldn't the Bank be doing all these calculations. What papers will they ask me for? Since my father lives with me the onus of calculation lies on me and I am finding it difficult to keep tag of his and my pay and allowances while pursuing my normal duties.

Will be grateful for any advice and any calculations, if some one has the time. Maj Navdip Singh has been such a great help always and the yeoman service he is rendering makes him worthy of a high award. I have been in touch with him too.

objectivity said...

What are the Home Secretary and the Secretary (Personnel) doing on the High level committee on Armed Forces pensions? And that too after no reperesentation from the Armed Forces?

devabhaktuniv said...

I am a Short service tech-1 and joined at the age of 27 Years.Retired as Lt col Selection grade.With weightage of 7 years I can get only 31 years and 8 months and 29 days of service and accordingly I am getting the Pension.Is there any provision that I can be considered as late entry and get the full pension or no.Can any body through somelight on this.

Deepak Gopinath said...

The blame lies squarely with CDA(O) who took almost 6 months to fix the pay of post 2006 retirees.
My revised LPC-cum-Data sheet was sent to PCDA by CDA on 09 Apr 09 and PCDA has issued the corrigendum on 29 May 09 a further delay of 2 months almost.

I agree that CDA and PCDA should be made to pay penal interest, but who is listening to us?

The case of Pre-2006 retirees also has been palmed off by PCDA to the banks thereby creating all round confusion in various banks with each bank interpreting the orders in their own way. All that PCDA had to do was issue corrigendums in respect of such officers and there would have been no confusion.
My father-in-law aged 89 is yet to get his additional 30% and my mother (a family pensioner) aged 84 is yet to get her 20%, all avoidable if PCDA had done the work that they were supposed to do.

Anonymous said...

Where has that "accepted in principle" 70% pension for PBORs gone. If it was hyped just to push the cause of officers. And when they got what they want from Govt on the name of PBORs, this point was just dropped. comments plz

raj kishore said...

Kindly post me email address of senior record officer eme record secunderabad for complaining my pension anomalies.Also,tell me is their any email address of pensioner complain cell operating in eme record office.PLease furnish email address of any officer/office to complain pension related matters on line.my email address is rajsbi1952@gmail.com

Dipanshu said...

I, No 14616208A Ex Hav/Clk (GD) Dharmendra Singh Chauhan was retired from Corps of EME wef 31 Mar 2009 (A/N), but still I could not get my balance amount of 60% ARREARS and amount of final queries of thousands of rupees.

It will be for my great pleasure, when I will get my outstanding dues after 09 months from my retirement.

Ex Hav Dharmendra Singh Chauhan

Jasbir Singh said...

I am JC750123P Sub Jasbir Singh retired on 31 Aug 2006 (A/N). as per my new corr PPO, My basic pension is Rs. 10675/-. After commutation I am getting Rs. 8755/- per month including DA. As per circular No 430 of the revision of pension of pre 2006 retirees, Pension of a Group 'Y' Subedar has been fixed as Rs 11970/ wef 01 Jul 2009 (ie Rs. 1295/- more than that of post 2006 retirees) where as pension of post 2006 retirees should be more than the pre 2006 retirees. Could you please clarify about this.

Further the revision of disability element/pension of post 2006 retirees PBORs is also still pending with PCDA Pension Allahabad since 11 months from the date of orders vide circular No 411 dated 22 May 2009. May I know the present position of the same. Will you kindly clarify about this?

Anonymous said...

I am No 14614468M NK/SKT Kore RD.I am serving in 1 gujarat compo tech Regt NCC,BARODA.My sallary for the month of june not credited yet in NEFT account No. 2130XXX0161213.
Please i request you to creadit my account at the earliest.
Thank you.