Chandigarh, March 6
While anomalies in the pay-fixation of officers consequent to the Fourth Pay Commission is yet to be settled, a fresh controversy has arisen over “incorrect” pension being paid to retired Armed Forces personnel for the past two decades.
A petition filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court by a retired officer has contended that ex-servicemen are still being paid commuted values of pension at old rates since 1985, despite a Supreme Court order granting them additional benefits in 1986.
A Division Bench comprising justice Ashutosh Mohanta and justice R.S. Madan yesterday issued a notice of motion to the Central Government on the issue, which, according to ex-servicemen, affects lakhs of persons across all ranks.
In his petition, Lt Col S.L. Sharma (retired) has contended that the Armed Forces personnel were granted additional two years purchase value towards the commutation of pension by the apex court in December 1986. The decision of the court has not been implemented till date.
According to the petition, ex-servicemen are still being paid commuted value of pension at the rate of 12.66 years as against the rate of 12.66 years plus additional two years granted by the Supreme Court. It was done to bring the Armed Forces personnel at par with the other Central Government employees for the restoration of full pension after 15 years. Instead, they continued to loose commuted value of pension for two years.
The matter came to light when the petitioner was denied restoration of full pension after 13 years. The controller of defence accounts and the bank concerned maintained that the restoration of full pension would be done on expiry of 15 years.
A close scrutiny of the judgement revealed that the SC had allowed the Central Government to grant two years additional purchase value for the commutation of pension, the petition stated. The orders were to be implemented with effect from May 1, 1986.
