Supreme Court raps Defence Ministry over payment of arrears

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New Delhi, March 13

Taking strong exception to the January 20 communication on payment of One Rank, One Pension (OROP) arrears in four instalments issued by the Ministry of Defence, the Supreme Court on Monday said the MoD couldn’t take law into its own hands.

“First withdraw (your) January 20 notification on payment of OROP arrears, then we will consider your application for time,” a Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud told Attorney General R Venkataramani after he said the Centre had paid one instalment of OROP arrears to ex-servicemen but needed some more time for further payments.

Long delay, Work out modalities

We want that there has to be some categorisation and older people should be paid arrears first. Over 4 lakh pensioners have died since litigation began. —CJI-led Bench

The Supreme Court had on January 9 granted time till March 15 to the government to clear the OROP dues of all eligible pensioners of the defence forces. This was the second extension given by the top court to the Centre to clear the OROP. In June last year it had sought three months to make payments in accordance with the March 16, 2022, verdict of the top court which had asked the Centre to pay the arrears in three months.

“You tell the Secretary we are going to take action against him for that January 20 communication. Either he withdraws it, or we are going to issue a contempt notice to the Ministry of Defence. The sanctity of the judicial process has to be maintained,” the Bench had told Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman on February 27.

Noting that the MoD’s January 20 communication was contrary to its verdict as it unilaterally decided to pay OROP arrears in four instalments, the Bench asked the ministry to withdraw it. While hearing a petition filed by the Indian Ex-servicemen Movement (IESM), the top court asked Venkataramani to prepare a note containing details of the payment to be made.