An average LIC pensioner has many grievances. But at the same time he has the legitimate pride in saying that he is a pensioner.
But remember, there were those days when an employee retiring from LIC had no pension benefits at all. It is a disturbing thought for us to recollect that employees retired without pension. They had the misfortune or bad luck of retiring just with Provident Fund and Gratuity.
Whatever be the positive side of this system of providing provident fund and gratuity as retirement benefits, money received was "loose cash" however hard you try to invest the amount with utmost safety and security. Such loose cash is easily spent.
These ex-employees had hard and miserable days and some of them died penniless.
In this back drop, we are fortunate now to acknowledge that we receive a ‘decent’ pension these days. However court is seized of a particular aspect of our pension payment structure and rules. Court order says “pensioners who retired after 31-7-1997 are getting the benefit of dearness allowance on the basic pension, thus the petitioners (pensioners) have been divided in two categories in a discriminatory manner.”
Thus pension litigation is important in this way in so far as it seeks to obviate the different ways of calculation of Dearness Allowance to the different categories of pensioners and seeks to remove disparities.
But it must be said without an iota of doubt that the publicity unleashed by a section of our brethren that we have won the case etc. was wrong and not justified as the court case is still getting on.
Some of our pensioner-brothers were even calculating the benefits coming out of Rajasthan High Court judgment. This was really an orchestrated symphony and I feel that that by all means such tendencies should not have been knowingly supported.
Anyway Supreme Court is seized of the matter. I have my worries about the final outcome of the Supreme Court case, let me frankly admit, my dear friends.
But I will be a happy man if my worries are proved to be without any rhyme or reason and LIC pensioners finally win the case!
