'No constitutional infirmity', SC upholds Centre's OROP policy

New Delhi, March 16

The Supreme Court today upheld the Centre’s “One rank, one pension” (OROP) policy for defence forces, saying there was no constitutional infirmity in it.

“The Centre has taken a policy decision. Such a decision lies within the ambit of policy making powers of the government. We do not find any constitutional infirmity on the OROP principle and the notification dated November 7, 2015,” said a three-judge Bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud.

The Bench, which had reserved its verdict on February 23 after hearing petitioner Indian Ex-servicemen Movement (IESM) and the Centre, said there was limited scope of judicial review of policy decisions taken by the Executive in such matters.

It directed that the re-fixation exercise in terms of the OROP policy should be carried out from July 1, 2019, and the arrears paid to the beneficiaries in three months.

“We accordingly order and direct that in terms of the communication dated November 7, 2015, a re-fixation exercise shall be carried out from July 1, 2019, upon the expiry of five years. Arrears payable to all eligible pensioners of the armed forces shall be computed and paid over accordingly within a period of three months,” it ordered. Maintaining that the definition of OROP was uniformly applicable to all pensioners, irrespective of the date of retirement, the Bench concluded that the definition of OROP was not arbitrary.

The Bench, which also included Justice Surya Kant and Justice Vikram Nath, said there was no legal mandate that pensioners with the same rank must be given the same pension.

The top court said, “If the maximum salary drawn is to be used as the base value instead of taking the average salary, an additional outlay of Rs 1,45,339.34 crore would be incurred. The executive (Government) is, therefore, well within its limits to prescribe a policy keeping in view the financial implications.”

The SC clarified that its verdicts in DS Nakara case and SPS Vains case can’t be understood to have mandated OROP.

Arrears in 3 months

The court orders re-fixation exercise as per OROP policy with effect from July 1, 2019, and payment of arrears in three months