Many murmurs have been heard regarding the landmark
decision of the Supreme Court granting pension to Judges of the High Court
elevated from the bar at par with those who are elevated from judicial service.
Some have remarked that the judges have granted themselves the benefit of “one
rank one pension”.
This is pure negative appreciation of the subject and
also not in the correct perspective.
Many would not know the genesis of the issue. Judges of
our High Courts who are elevated from the bar face acute discrimination
vis-a-vis those appointed from the quota of judicial service/district judges. So
much so, that Judges elevated after long standing practice at the bar and with
long service on the Bench were getting much lower pensions than those Judges
who were from the quota of judicial service and who may have spent a minuscule
period on the Bench as compared to the former. This discrimination was unique
to High Court judges and this is what was the source of the controversy before
the Supreme Court and has consequently been struck down.
Also, as is well known, for post-2006 pensioners the
system of linkage of length of service with amount of pension has been abrogated
for all central government employees and they are now entitled to 50% of basic
pay drawn at the time of retirement as their pension as soon as they complete
the requisite qualification of earning a pension under the rules, irrespective
of the length of service. Prior to 2006 of course there was a requirement of 33
years’ service for earning full pension. However, what is not known to the
public at large is the fact that the said stipulation of abrogation of linkage
of length of service with amount of pension was not graciously extended to High
Court judges and the pension of High Court judges, including those retiring
after 01-01-2006, was linked with the years on the bench, which of course was discriminatory
on the face of it.
Yes, the Supreme Court has remarked that there should be one-rank one-pension for pensioners
retiring from constitutional posts also. And why not? Officers of the rank of
Secretary to Govt of India and above on the civil side and Officers of the rank
of Lt Gen (Army Commander grade) and above on the military side who retire from
a fixed scale are in receipt of one-rank
one-pension by default, so why not High Court judges who are in the same
pay-grade and actually placed on a higher article in the Warrant of Precedence?
A very fine judgement that should pave way for resolution
of anomalies for other categories of pensioners.
4 comments:
OROP is acceptable when a small no is affected. However its implementation to all Military offrs is a considerable budget outgo, and therefore the reluctance notwithstanding early retirement and No lateral absorption etc. whatsoever.
WELCOME ..... BUT STILL-Why this vague expression "ONE-RANK-ONE-PENSION" ...Because even JUDGNENTS ARE NOT LEADING TO CORRECT IMPLEMENTATION....some judgments have decried that PAST PENSIONERS CAN NOT DEMAND SAME REVISED PAY SCALES AS IF THEY ARE STILL INSERVICE....so objective should be well defined....must be FORMULATED TO BE A UNIFORM RATIO OF THE LAST PAY DRAWN IN THE SCALE OF PAY OF THE POST HELD BY THE PENSIONER AT THE TIME OF HIS RETIREMENT WITH THE LIBERALISED QUALIFYING SERVICE , IRRESPECTIVE OF DATE OF RETIREMENT/ CUT OFF DATE,IN ACCORDANCE WITH A FITMENT/ CONCORDANCE TABLE THAT MAY BE EVOLVED APPLICABLE TO OLD PENSIONERS AS WELL AS WOULD BE PENSIONERS/ EMPLOYEES ETC SUBJECT TO A THRESH-HOLD LEVEL OF AN UNIFORM MULTIPLICATION FACTOR FROM TOP TO BOTTOM. ... Applying SUCH A FITMENT to OLD RETIRED Hon Judges , one will see suo moto it will result in what they desire- totally abiding to the ARTICLE 14-all old judges shall get same pension... IN FACT THIS WILL BE SOMETHING LIKE ONE STAGE- ONE RANK-ONE PENSION as per a common FITMENT TABLE......
anonymous said: dear navdeep, eventhough this mail is not related to the above matter, ur immediate action is requested on this mail: navys own website & defence ministries latest advts showing commanders of navy / lt cols of army etc. r placed under pay band- 4 .but in a advt calling for officer entry in navy it was advertised that commanders r placed in pay band PB-4A repeat PB-4A . all of sudden how a new pay band come in to, that to after announcement of 7th pay commission.if left unnoticed,there is possibility that thay r not in PB 4. pl get the information under RTI act, who is responsible for for creation of new pay band called PB-4A.
Dear maj. Navdeep, how come there is no update on anything for the last 15 days. we eagerly look fwd your blogs.
v.sundaresan
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