Bank pensioners urge govt to take notice of their problems

Ashok Kaura

Phagwara, October 2

Bank pensioners who have rendered yeoman’s service in implementing financial policies of the government are expropriated in old age going by the pension regulations. Sham Lal Gupta, a former bank official, voiced his concern over this while talking to newsmen here.

Gupta said pension fund comprises the CPF (Central Provident Fund) of employees and the CPF paid at the time of retirement refunded by retired employees and the families of deceased employees. However, the pension in banks was not revised for the last 28 years in spite of the pension regulations postulating that basic pension and additional pension, wherever applicable, shall be updated as per the given formula.

He said the memorandum of settlement dated October 1993 entered with All India Bank Employees’ Association pursuant to Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, mandates that the pension scheme in banks shall be exactly the same as in Reserve Bank of India as regards amount, payment of dearness relief etc. Pension in Reserve Bank of India was updated in March, 2019, followed by the updating in NABARD also, but similar updating was not done in banks in breach of the settlement.

A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court has held in DS Nakara & Others versus Union of India that pension is closely akin to wages in that it consists of payment provided by an employer. This was further reiterated in civil appeal number 5525 of 2018 via Bank of Baroda and another via G Palani and others in February 2018. It was also held that pension is not a bounty payable at the sweet will of the employer and is not subject to the discretion of the government even while it is paid out of budgetary allocations.

Gupta said though Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman advised the Indian Banks Association three years ago that bank pensioners should be given One Rank, One Pension, the promise remains unkept and urged its immediate redressal.