15 August 2016 (Vol III - Issue 4)Share your ideas and opinions

WILL THE REAL ONE RANK ONE PENSIONSCHEME EVER SEE THE LIGHT OF THE DAY?

The implementation of One Rank One Pension scheme has been decades old demand of the Indian Armed forces. As per the most widely accepted definition, it refers to providing the same pension amount to the retired military personnel immaimmaterial of the year of retirement. To avail the benefit of this scheme, the retired soldiers should have (i) Similar rank at the time of retirement and (ii) Served same years of services in the military. The issue gained moss with the implementation of Sixth Pay CCommission, since it created a big difference to the amount of pension received by armed force professionals who retired before and after 2006, with same rank. This system made a recently retired person with even a junior rank to get more pension than aa senior person who retired several years back and hence led to the discrimination of military veterans.

was in my destiny that One rank One pension has been fulfilled". Moreover, even after assuming the office, the NDA government kept on making repeated promises but failed to implement the scheme.

Ironically, on 30 May 2015, he declared that the OROP still need to be defined. The statement was taken as a deceitful attempt to delay, dilute, and deny OROP. Consequently, in a bid to continue pressurizing the government over the OROP row, the exex-servicemen came out in thousands on 14 June 2015 all across the country to express their dissent. The same day, the members of Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) also announced the indefinite relay hunger strike, as several rounds of backchannel and official negotiationnegotiations succumbed to make any headway. Throughout the protest, the veterans maintained that their struggle is not about money, but about equality and rights.

The Prime Minister was expected to drop some good news in his August 15 speech from the Red Fort. However, instead of making any positive announcements, he termed it as a problem "pending to be resolved”, and asked for more

The demand acquired the form of agitation when thousands of retired Armed Forces personnel gathered at the Jantar Mantar on 8 February 2009 to protest against the government for not accepting the demand to implement OROP. Some even termed itit as a black day for Indian military. Out of these thousands of retired soldiers, above 300 of different ranks marched to Rashtrapati Bhavan and returned the medals they won in the wars and for other distinguished services. It still took five years for the government of IndiIndia to recognize this long-standing demand when it allocated Rs 500

crore to the Defense Pension Account in February 2014, to implement the scheme. To the dismay of the revered Indian soldiers who served their life for the country, the scheme, despite being declared, failed to see the light of the day under the UPA government.

During 2014 Elections, the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government headed by Manmohan Singh and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by Narendra Modi, both made towering claims as a part of their election campaigns and included OROP in their election manifesto. Modi, during an election rally in Haryana promised thousands of Ex-servicemen to implement OROP if elected, which helped him won the support of countless Armed Forces and veterans. He told soldiers "It

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The Deo committee presented 160-page report to the Prime Minister on 27 October, 1987 with 69 recommendations. It was this report in which the term OROP (One Rank, OneOne Pension) appeared for the very first time. The report recommended the Indira Gandhi led government to grant OROP Scheme. Overall, of the 69 recommendations, 6666 were granted. Three

important suggestions still remained untouched and OROP was one of them; others being the suggestion for an ex-servicemen finance corporation and separate commission for ex-servicemen. This was the fifirst instance when the government expressed its ignorance towards OROP.

issue. This infuriated the retired Armed Forces personnel even more and compelled them to move on with their protest, which continued till almost a year. The 320-day old agitation was finally suspended on 28 April, 2016 when Senior Lawyer senior lawyer Ram JethmalanJethmalani assured the ex-servicemen of fighting for their legal battle in the apex court.

Eventually, the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, on behalf of NDA government introduced and implemented its own version of One Rank One Pension on 5 September, 2015 after the ex-servicemen staged a countrywide protest. The issue notificationotification of implementation tables of the scheme took place in February 2016. The protesting veterans however found the revised OROP scheme disappointing and decided to move on with the protest. They argued that the scheme ceases to conform to the ‘‘accepted̓ definition and comprises several anomalies.Responding to the decision, Major General (Retd) Satbir Singh, the head of IESM said "Out of the six demands that we made, the government has only agreed with one. We want clarification on the premature retirement point in the OROP. Talking abouabout NDA government̓s decision to introduce 5-year cycle for pension revision, he said that this was “"in the spirit of One Rank, One Pension, it will be One Rank, Five Pensions," and therefore urged the government to “rethink it”. Notably, the OROP oorder excludes all future Armed Forces retirees who seek premature retirement from the entitlement of OROP

forces Personnel until 1973, when the Government of India took ex-parte decision against the One Rank One Pension formula. The implementation of the scheme has since then been a controversial issue. The delay in restoring OROP kept onon creating discontent among the retired veterans throughout these years. Especially, after the laying down of the recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission in 2006, the agitation of the ex-servicemen caught an unprecedented pace, witwith demonstrations and public protests being held in every corner of India. Several retired Armed Forces personnel even surrendered their war medals.

In spite of growing protests and in the wake of responding to a petition, the petition committee of Rajya Sabha took cognizance of the OROP scheme. A parliamentary committee was set up by the upper house of the Parliament of India to examine the issue under thethe chairmanship of Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, the veteran BJP MP. The Koshiyari committee recommended that, “Government should implement OROP in the defence forces across the board at the earliest and further that for future, the pay, allowances, pensiopension, family pension, etc. in respect of the defence personnel should be determined by a separate commission so that their peculiar terms” are properly taken into account.

In 1973, the then Indira Gandhi government abolished the existing separate Pay Commission for the Armed Forces. Subsequently, the OROP that was effective till 1972 underwent a significant modification, with a reduction in the pension pepercentage of the retired veterans. The Third Pay Commission recommended raising the pension of civil servants from 30% to 50% of their basic pay, and reducing the pension amount of soldiers from 70% to 50% of their last pay.

The government also made it mandatory to complete 33 years of services for any person to get full pension. This came as a shocker to the soldiers since the average service period of the Armed Forces was only 15 years, and they used to start getting pensionpensions right after 33-36 years of age. The point of dispute here was the axing of pension amount for the retired soldiers while increasing it for their civilian counterparts. The centralgovernment employees served till the age of 58 years at that time, whereasthe soldiers were relieved from their services around 25 years earlier.

DDue to this fact, many considered the change in pension scheme as injustice, ironically it was meant to achieve parity. Moreover, the recommendation of the Third Pay Commission came to the fore two months after Field Marshal Manekshaw retired from the post of ArmArmy Chief. This was a well thought move since Manekshaw was the most popular figure in the country after having won the war against Pakistan under his command. He was the only person to take cudgels against the government̓s decision at that time.

The seeds of the OROP issue were sown way back in 70̓s, two years after the 1971 Indo-Pak war when the recommendation of Third Pay Commission eyed at cutting short the pension amount of the retired Armed Forces personnel.

The glaring flaws in the caseThe Third Pay Commission Recommendations

“Uniform Pension to be paid to the Armed Forces Personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement and any future enhancement inin the rates of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners”

In 1979, HN Bahuguna, the then Finance Minister hiked the salary of serving soldiers by combining a part of their basic pay to the dearness allowance. This led to an increase in their pensions, and caused first point of disparity between the Armed Forces pensionpensions retired before and after 1979.

1979 Pay Hike

OROP was considered as the yardstick to decide the pension of Indian Armed

Koshiyari Committee Report

The definition of OROP Scheme as given by Koshiyari Committee

In March 1984, Indira Gandhi appointed a high-level committee to inspect into the problems of ex-servicemen. The body, which was first of its kind, was headed by Minister of State for Defence KP Singh Deo and included PA Sangma, Vayalar Ravi and JanaJanardhana Poojary among others as its members. In its bid to unleash the main problems of the ex-servicemen all across the country, the committee found that the defence pensions comprised one of the root causes of their discontent.

1984 DEO Committee

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This definition from Koshyari Committee received acceptance from the Government, as well as by the Parliament and the ex-servicemen. It became a benchmark for the demand of veterans to implement OROP and was in sync with the definition of OROP asas stated by the ex-servicemen, which implies, “the grant of equal pension to soldiers of a particular rank, who have rendered the same length of service, irrespective of the date of their retirement".

Since the tabling down of the Koshiyari Committee report in 2011, currently the second government is in the office, however, not much has been done to satisfy the demand of the army veterans till now e. While all the commitments of the UPA Government undeunder Manmohan Singh went in vain, the NDA government was a step ahead in defying the pre-poll promises to implement OROP.

To add to the amusement of war veterans, the ‘accepted definition̓ failed to find favor with the incumbent NDA Government. Despite rounds of pledges and promises to implement OROP since more than a year, PM Modi on 30 May, 2015 declared that ththe term still needed to be defined. Arun Jaitley, the former Defence Minister, who later became Finance Minister, also opposed the definition recommended by Koshiyari Committee on 31 August 2015 as he said, "I have my own formula on what OROP means. SSomebody else may have their own formula on OROP but it has to be within reasonable and rational criteria. You can't have an OROP where pensions are revised every month or every year". All these statements contributed to the dissent of the retired Armed FForces veterans. The OROP that the government eventually put forth, received a lukewarm, in fact agitated response from the war veterans.

crore. This also includes pension outlay for more than 5,85,000 defence civilians, which is a staggering number, even larger than the Pakistan Army in entirety. The expenses of the government will rise exceptionally every time the pay commission decladeclares a salary hike. Moreover, accepting the demand of the ex-servicemen to equalize the pension every year instead of revision of the pension amount after every five years as intended by the government would tend the latter to made additional eexpenditures.

Giving a little bit of positive response on the scheme, the UPA government allocated Rs 500 crore, and the NDA govt granted Rs 1000 crore in its first budget. However, when it comes to thinking about the incremental cost of Rs 18,000-20,000 crore, both the govgovernments are way behind owing to all these complicated financial implications. Hence, to hold the governments responsible for the delay is to some extent not justified. It indeed requires too much of funds and management work to make the changechanges as per demand.

Supreme Court of India, in a landmark decision, directed that all the pensioners who retired before 01.01.1996 as Major General should get the pay at the rate paid to similar officers of the same rank who retired post 01.01.1996, after the pay scales rerevision w.e.f 01.01.2006. The decision thwarted any possibility of disparity in the payment of pensions to officers who share the same rank and have retired before or after the introduction of revised pay scales.

Manohar Parrikar, the current Defence Minister of India approved the proposal for OROP implementation on 17 February 2015 at an estimated cost of 8600 crores, which was refined to 7500 crores in Feb, 2016. He forwarded the proposal to Defence MinistrMinistry on 17 Mar 2015 where it is still pending. In May 2016, Parrikar again stated that the proposal of OROP is in the last stage and confirmed that Finance Ministry will clear it within few days. Taking the credit for the proposal, he added, “It is the first time that a cleaclear proposal has been sent to finance ministry on OROP”. It is now more than a year since his statement and the proposal is still in the waiting. All eyes of the veteran Armed Forces personnel along with the fellow Indians are now on the Finance Ministry to have its say oon the scheme.

One of the most important points of contention between the central government and the ex-servicemen is the base year to calculate OROP. The government wanted 2011 as the base year to set the pay scales while the veterans want it to be 2014. The gap of 3 3 years in the cut-off dates would result in increased number of personnel who would be benefiting from the scheme along with immense differences in their salaries. To be precise, the expenses incurred due to the change of dates would lie somewhere between Rs 44,000 to Rs 6,000. In the approved OROP, the government has however conformed to complying with 2013 as the base year, 2014 as the implantation year and revision after five years.

While releasing detailed instructions regarding OROP implementation in Feb 2016, the government said that the defence pension outlay is expected to rise by 20% in 2016-2017. It further said, “The annual recurring financial implication on account of implemenimplementation of OROP at the current rate will be approximately Rs 7,500 crore”. As per defence analyst Ajai Shukla, this amount will be only slightly lower than the annual salary bill of Rs 93, 216 core. However, the Defence Minister has set the cost to be Rs 110,000 initially, which will be increased as the things proceed.

According to Shukla, the finance budget allocated for 2016 is Rs 60,000

financial complications; here is some explanation on the same. At present, the pensions that the veterans are being paid, are from the savings they made during their employment. With the implementation of OROP, they will get pensions based on the current lelevel. This will cause an overdue burden on the government since it will have to pay the pensions from its pocket and not from the savings of the veterans. This direct cost will be like a subsidy from the government to the retired employees of the Armed Forces.

While hearing the case of Union of India Vs SPS Vains (Vains), the Hon̓ble

The base year

The Supreme Court ruling

The issue of OROP implementation is stuck up largely due to the involved

The direct cost

With the entire OROP row delaying the interest of the retired Armed Forces veterans, the government is made an undisputed culprit, however, there is flip side to this story as well. The Indian government is also bound with certain limitations, which is ultimately resulting inin a prolong wait for the ex-servicemen to finally get the much desired equality and of course, the revised pension scale.

The Financial Hassles 

Get your voice heard at. We shall bring your views to light. Write to us at speakup@researchatsashwaat.com

Board of Advisors

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The government has already implemented the OROP scheme with 2014 as the base year, but certain issues are still left untouched, leading to the anguish of the veterans. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself accepted in his “Mann Ki Baat” broadcast,broadcast, that his government had underestimated the complexity of the OROP process.

The moot point that prevails is the issue of equalization. While the government is adamant at revising the pay scale after ever five years due to administrative difficulties, the ex servicemen want it annually or at least bi-annually. Amid this tussle, neanear about two and a half million

EDITOR̓S NOTE

will also attain actualization soon.

Amit Mohaan Meharia BA. LLB. (Hons.)King̓s College, London, Solicitor (Supreme Court of England and Wales)Moonmoon Karmakar MMA (English), Calcutta University, PGDBA (HR)Teesta Haldar Teacher BA (Calcutta University), MA (JNU)Samita Das MA (English), Presidency UniversityNilotpal Sen Nilotpal Sen Director, Ebong Advertising Solutions PGD in Mass Communication (Jadavpur University)

Armed Forces veterans and their families are still raring to get the pension and the equality they deserve.AArguably, with the government agreeing to all the requisite conditions, there is every possibility for the civil servants in uniform to demand for an OROP of similar stature. It is already a challenge for the government to manage the sumptuous amount requirequired to pay the salaries and pensions to Armed forces personnel as per the revised OROP. Amid this, abiding by the demand of one or more of similar OROP schemes from various sections could almost tear apart the backbone of the Indian economy.The requirement for the OROP is beyond doubts and inevitable necessity for our soldiers since they are the reason behind our happy and secure lives. It is hence imperative to do our best in order to safeguard the

future of these respected Indian citizens and their families. The government has raised a positive step toward their welfare with the implementation of new OROP scheme. Hence, it would be a nice gesture if the protesting groups agree to the pays ththey have been allowed for at present.For sure, the current and the forthcoming governments might have even better plans for the veterans in the future. However, delaying the right of the veterans even further could generate a feeling of distrust among the war veterans. The government, atat present, needs to clear the mist on providing due respect and amount apropos to the new scheme with immediate effect. A mismatch between the delivery and the expectations could cause problems in the long run. Hopefully, the much sought after yet unheaunheard points of the OROP will also

An important judgment to support the cause of ex-servicemen came in 2008 when the hon̓ble Supreme Court of India directed same pay of all the pensioners in the rank of Major General who retired before or after 01 January 1996.

On the petition of few Retired Major Generals in Punjab High Court in May 26, 2005, the latter directed the Centre to fix minimum pay scale of the Major General, which should be higher to that of pay of the Brigadier. It also directed to grant pay, higher to thethe scale of a Brigadier, as has been done in the case of post-January 1, 1996, retirees. Additionally, the High Court asked the center to fix the pension and family pension accordingly.

The government of India filed an appeal in the Supreme Court (CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION, CIVIL APPEAL NO.5566 OF 2008 @ SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (CIVIL) NO. 12357 of 2006, Union of India

Union of India Vs. SPS Vains

IMPORTANT JUDGMENT

agencies were involved in issuing government orders for implementation (of the court order), the compliance could not be done within three months. But the delay is neither intentional nor deliberate, and is deeply regretted.”

In response to a petition filed by Indian Ex-servicemen Movement (IESM) in July 2016, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Central government. In the matter heard by a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and C Nagappan, and adadvocated by Ram Jethmalani on behalf of the petitioner, the court sought a declaration that non-implementation of the ‘One rank one pension scheme̓ violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.  It also asked for the implemenimplementation of OROP with an automatic pension hike of the past retired veterans, in sync with the any improvement of the pension of the recent retired Armed Forces Personnel.

The petition filed by IESM said

Supreme Court Notice in July 2016

Vs. SPS Vains (Retd.) and others) to challenge the judgment given by the Punjab High Court. The highlights of the ruling made by the bench comprising Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice Markandey Katju are as follows:224. The said decision of the Central Government does not address the problem of a disparity having created within the same class so that two officers both retiring as Major Generals, one prior to 1.1.1996 and the other after 1.1.1996, would get two different amountamounts of pension. While the officers who retired prior to 1.1.1996 would now get the same pension as payable to a Brigadier on account of the stepping up of pension in keeping with the Fundamental Rules, the other set of Major Generals who retired after 11.1.1996 will get a higher amount of pension since they would be entitled to the benefit of the revision of pay scales after 1.1.1996.

25. In our view, it would be arbitrary to allow such a situation to continue since the same also offends the provisions of Article 14 of the Constitution.

and modify the order of the High Court by directing that the pay of all pensioners in the rank of Major General and its equivalent rank in the two other Wings of the Defence Services be notionally fixed at the rate given to similar officers of the same rank afafter the revision of pay scales with effect from 1.1.1996, and, thereafter, to compute their pensionary benefits on such basis with prospective effect from the date of filing of the writ petition and to pay them the difference within three months from date with interest at 10% peper annum. The respondents will not be entitled to payment on account of increased pension from prior to the date of filing of the writ petition.

Following the seven year delay, the Supreme Court allowed three months to NDA government in February 2015 to implement the order, which expired in May 2015. In response, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) filed an affidavit in December 2015, informing ththe Supreme Court that “it has complied with a 2008 judgment for implementation of the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) principle for retired Armed Forces personnel.”  

The MoD said: “Due to procedural process and the fact that number of agencies were involved in issuing 31. We, accordingly, dismiss the appeal

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OROP is a uniform desire of the three defence services and ex-servicemen are presently drawing pension that is not consistent with their rank and length of service”. It added, "some ex-servicemen are drawing lesser pension than the ex-servicemen whwho retired in subordinate ranks (or in the same rank) which is unjust and unconstitutional”. Appearing for IESM and ten other ex-servicemen, Senior Counsel Ram Jethmalani told the court “This (OROP) is a long standing demand of the defence personnel anand this is a great injustice,".

Notably, the petitioner is a body of ex-servicemen̓s organizations along with the individual military veterans from Army, Navy and Air Force. The petition refers to the exhaustive history of OROP. It claims that OROP was implemented for 26 years post independencindependence but was “unjustly changed” in 1973 on the 3rd Central Pay Commission recommendation. The petition also brings both the existing NDA government and the previous UPA Government under scanner for denying One Rank One PPension to ex-servicemen.  

The tenure of the committee formed

on implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme has been extended by six months up to the middle of December this year

ThThe government recently amended the gazette notification issued last year under which the committee headed by former Chief Justice of Patna High Court Justice (Retd) L Narasimha ReddReddy was scheduled to submit its report by June 14.

Dissent of veterans

the “neglect of defence personnel” in a letter sent on August 3, 2016. to Mr. Parrikar, the Defence Minister and Justice L. Narasimha Reddy, who heads the one-man judicial commission to look into issues arising out of the implementation of the OROP.

Commission didn̓t treat them at par with the civil servants. A letter on the same issue was sent to the Prime Minister on 7 August 2016 by General VP Malik, Former Army Staff Chief and 18 other former chiefs. Malik later confirmed that there has been no reply byby the PM, and that he has taken the

concern of retired chiefs for granted. The Army veteran said that this ‘blatant discrimination̓ has led to a strong feeling of ‘despondency̓ and ‘resignation̓ in the Armed Forces.

The fate of One Rank One Pension is still in the doldrums, with the government dilly dallying the issue on various occasions. The veterans are not at par with the revised OROP scheme, and are at loggerheads with the government as usual. Here is an insight into the current scenarioscenario regarding this burning issue.

The groups of ex-servicemen allege “betrayal” by the government as their representations to the Defence Ministry is yet to be forwarded to the commission. The Chairman of the Indian IESM, Maj. Gen Satbir Singh (retd.) expressed “anguish and concern” for

Dissent on 7th CPC

The Armed Forces have also expressed their disquiet on the impact of recommendations of 7th Pay Commission on Indian Armed Forces. They were of the mind that the Pay

Hearing Notification

The government of India constituted a one-man judicial committee through an order dated 14.12.2015, to examine and make recommendations on issues related to OROP implementations. The committee headed by L. Narasimha Reddy henceforth issued notification dadated 02.08.2016 to hold hearing on various places where the density of pensioners/ex-servicemen is high.

The first three of these hearings are slated to be held in Chandigarh (17.08.2016), Jammu (18.08.2016), and Delhi (19.08.2016) followed by other places throughout August and September 2016. With the hearings, the commission mulls at getting the opinionopinions of Defence Forces pensioners, Family Pensioners, as well as the three service Headquarters of Army, Navy and Air Force. This will help it submit a report on the questions regarding delay in OROP.

Independence Day Speech

On 15th August 2016, PM Modi took the credit for approving OROP. He said,  “OROP was hanging for a long time, we took it head on. More than 35000 jawans have lost their lives fighting at border so that we can stay peacefully here, how can we forget thethem. Therefore my government tried to resolve the long standing issue of OROP.” However, he didn̓t say anything about the time by which, the scheme will start benefiting the war veterans in real. The same day, two of the tweets from the official @PMOIndia twitter accountaccount also mentioned OROP.

“I assure the servicemen and I am saying it under the Tricolour from the Red Fort. We have accepted OROP. Some talks are still on”: PM.IIn another tweet, he added, “The way the talks are going on I am expecting something positive”: PM on OROP.

CURRENT SCENARIO

NEWSDelay In OROP Likely As Government Extends Panel Report Deadline

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said

on July 26 that there was no "standardised definition" for the One Rank One Pension scheme for retired defence personnel, adding that the earlieearlier "interpretation" for revision after every retirement was not viable.

No Standardised Definition for One Rank One Pension Scheme: Arun Jaitley

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Over Rs. 3,186 crore has been paid to

more than 17 lakh military veterans on account of One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme and 100 per cent compliance is expected by ththe month-end, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said.a"17,29,358 pensioners have benefited from OROP to the tune of Rs. 3,186 crore. Expect to ensure cent per cent compliance by May end," Mr Parrikar tweeted.

Rs. 3,186 Crore Given To Over 17 Lakh Veterans Under OROP: Manohar Parrikar

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Published by Amit Meharia Designed by Contrivance Technologies, DC 7/A Baguihati, Kolkata 700 059Owned by Sashwaat Society of Eduction & Research Place of Publication 9, Old Post Office Street, 2nd floor, Kolkata 700 001

The Registrar of Newspaper Authority of India, Registration No: 126443/2013

Answers: Sir Harilal J. Kania, 1958, Fatima Beevi, Fort William