DEAR SRI AGGARWAL,
1) U wanted my views on this subject. I venture to do so. MANY VIEWS WERE EXPRESSED RELATING TO THE IDEA OF SENDING AN APPLICATION TO CJI,SC TO ENSURE COURT CASES COME TO A CONCLUSION AFTER MANY YEARS OF CONSIDERATION IN HIGH COURTS & EVEN TO SC HAVE TAKEN PLACE. SOME PERHAPS ADVISED CAUTION. SOME WERE TOTALLY AGAINST THIS IDEA AS WE ARE ALREADY ENGAGED IN PRE-FINALS OR FINALS. SOME THOUGHT IT FIT TO WAIT FOR ANNOUNCED LISTINGS IN JAIPUR HC OR SC ETC
2) I HOLD THE VIEW THAT IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO WRITE TO CJI. WE ARE CLEAR IN OUR MIND & UNANAIMOUSLY WE HAVE SUPPORTED SRI ASTHANA FOR HIS VALIANT FIGHT AS ALSO DEPLOYMENT OF STRATEGIES DEPENDING ON DEVELOPMENTS. I DON’T THINK ANYBODY SENSES EVEN AN IOTA OF FAILURE OF OUR CASE & ULTIMATE CLINCHING OF SJ & DB JAIPUR HC RULING AS AN UMBRELLA VERDICT EMBRACING TWIN ISSUES OF PENSION REVISION WITH EVERY WAGE REVISION & SAME FULL DR TO PENSIONERS AS FULL DA TO EMPLOYEES.
3) WHEN THAT IS SO,IT IS A MATTER OF SOME FEW MONTHS, & THAT TOO LEGITIMATELY AS COURT PROCEDURES ARE CIRCUITOUS, WE ARE EMBROILED IN 2OR 3 HC CASES WHICH ALSO DISTURBED OUR RATHER FAIR & QUICK PROGRESS & TANGENTIAL DEVPTS STARTED TALKING PLACE. IT IS OUR COLLECTIVE WEAKNESS TO HAVE ALLOWED OTHER COURT CASES IN SPITE OF A CLEAR BLANKET BAN TAKEN IN EC MEETING OF RAJKOT.CHANDIGARH ALSO SHD HAVE BEEN SUPERVISED PROPERLY MUCH MUCH EARLIER.
4) IT MUST BE REMEBERED THAT ANY ORGANISATION DEPLOYS DIFFERENT METHODS, PLANS, STRATEGY, ACTION PLAN, RESOLUTIONS PASSED IN EC/GC MEETINGS TO BE GIVEN AUTHENTIC SHAPE WITH CONSISTENT& COMMITTED FUP & MANY OTHER WAYS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS. SOME ORGNS DO IT METHODICALLY WITH PRECISE INPUTS. OTHERS TAKE IT RATHER LIGHTLY.SO, CUMULATIVE BURDEN OF APATHY, DELAY, INDIFFERENCE SWEEPS & RAY OF HOPE BECOMES RATHER DIM.WE ARE CAUGHT IN THIS WEB.
U MUST HAVE SEEN DIFFERENT LETTERS BY DIFFERENT ASSNS OF PENSIONERS MEETING TOP MANAGEMENT& SOME POSITIVE SOLUTIONS, SOME A SORT OF AN ASSURANCE & SOME AS RATHER NOT POSSIBLE AS MOF.UOI GREEN SIGNAL IS REQD --- SUCH SPECTRUM OF REPLIES COMES FROM MGT. YET THAT IS A GOOD STRIDE & IT MUST BE PURSUED VIGOROUSLY WITHOUT LET OR HINDRANCE. SINGLE TRACK SOLUTIONS WILL MET WITH DELAY & FAILURE ONLY
5) ANY NUMBER OF CALLS, LETTERS, APPEALS, PETITIONS WERE SUBMITTED ON MANY MANY OCCASIONS.
i) Hectic efforts & strategies were employed to meet many top executives of LIC. I have made any number of phone calls to them, Chairman to Chief P, to represent pensioners issues & problems, those which are easy to resolve segregated, elicit their viewpoints, make it known to our leaders. It has created lot of rapport, personal understanding & appreciation,& atleast to reduce time for resolving the problem.
ii) We have met right from Under Secretary TO Special Secretary, MOF,submitted various Notes & Charts for all cadres clearly pointing out such gross differences.
Many letters from LIC Top mgt to MOF were secured thro RTI & we have widely mentioned in our Articles & submissions etc. Such things will not go in vain. Supplementary effort is needed to strengthern RTI effort by more number of activists at various Zonal levels to get quicker replies rather than omnibus All India replies which takes year/s to fructify.
iii) We have approached all independent Board Directors, met many, submitted Memorandum & clarified the issues. Continued contacts were maintained over phone calls, they were made to understand the truth of our issues, the modesty & legitimacy of our demands, the victories in Courts & even if outlay did not figure we could tell them with conviction LIC can comfortably accept Court verdict gracefully & implement pension upgradation.Now by rotation, many are substituted & new ones have taken charge.
iv) Many of AIRIEF units at different Divisional Hqrs have met many top political leaders, Rahul Gandhi, Scindia, Minister, MOState, MP, MLA & presented Petitions to them, which were forwarded by them to FM with copy to that unit. Then FM Pranab Mukerjee was also met along with 13 combined Unions inservice & pensioners.
v) When Moily was Law Minister, he was met by RIEA Blore at his residence, National Litigation Policy was also narrated in order to secure his help to ensure No Appeals or Reviews are made by Instns/UOI, MORE SO WHEN IT CONCERNS Retirement or pensionary benefits to elders.
vi) U all have met Sri Pawan Kumar Bansal & other leaders many times. U also elicited Sr Advocates opinion to ensure correct course of remedies in strategy. He also gave useful perhaps either or & Sri Asthana followed his robust sense as an experienced lawyer himself
vii) Question Hour in Parliament was also used as a vehicle.
viii) Sometimes sporadically individual post cards with same message urging quick resolution of long pending grievances were also sent to relevant Authorities.
ix) MANY LETTERS WERE WRITTEN TO CHIEF JUSTICES OF SC& HC TO SPEED UP ELDERS/SR CITIZENS CASES, BUT NO EFFECT WAS SEEN. ORDERS EVEN NOW STAND BUT NOT IMPLEMENTED UNFORTUNATELY
xi) Sri CH Mahadevan, ED (Retd), has lent lot of support. On many matters of Court strategy, he has elicited Expert views from Hon TMC Rangarajan, Retd Judge of Madras & Andhra HCs & flashed it to Sri Asthana & myself. Never the learned Judge thought it as an interference as umpteen times, Sri Mahadevan got his apt comments so promptly too.
xii) Sri N.Kasilingam, legal luminary,Tirunelveli RIEA perhaps tops the list of those who have written Appeals, Petitions & Memorandums to all who matter--- President of India, PM, FM, Law Minister & many more. He writes legibly, clearly, forcefully & good, sharp focus on the core & kernel of the problem for the authorities intervention & solution.
xiii) I know & SRI ASTHANA knows too well how much we did hard work to prepare a strong COUNTER to the MARATHON 19 PAGES OF SLP as it was crucial, it has laid a solid base & it has come off SO WELL & ARTICULATE & POINTED AS WELL AS ANY VERSATILE LAWYER WLD HAVE DONE, EQUALLY we know how much right from good old days of SRI ASTHANA COURT CASE , we exchanged NOTES, VIEWS, CHARTS ON PRIORITY & IMMEDIATE BASIS, & SUGGESTIONS, QUESTIONS & REPLIES. MY ARCHIVES IS FULL TO THE BRIM WITH ALL THESE WONDERFUL INSIGHTS we cld have as FRIENDS & COMRADES FOR THE SAME CAUSE OF VICTORY TO all PENSIONERS.
Any Application, Counter Affidavit, Writ Petitions, Rejoinders comes to me & Sri Mahadevan for urgent & immediate views, corrections, dates, references etc, any additions, if needed etc, within 6 hours, howsoever long it may be, we are sending back with clear indications. Such sharing reduces pain & tension & enhances the value & correctness & authenticity of presentation. How much data we wanted from him to expedite Pension, DR difference for that 27 petitioners, we only know. It was awesome to calculate & within stipulated time. It is backbreaking many times.
6) Pensioners problems are viewed differently, even lackadaisicallly. It is strange that elders are not taken into confidence. Added to this is the existence of more than 1 Pensioners fedn & strangely with not too similar views.
THE problem is compounded when Employees Fedns do not support Pensioners Fe dns & synergy is lost, Management & govt feel happy about such situations & so too many legal battles all over by Service & Financial sector, the real KAMADHENU FOR govt in normal & trying situations.
What is reqd is the force & tenor of the presentation,& above all the sincerity, perseverance doggedness & commitment displayed by PENSIONERS FEDNS to see to the ultimate solution as fast as possible thro well-planned strategies & eminent PR.
7) More than 14 years, money, labour, energy, inconveniences, delay, adjournments, court rules & procedures, adverse health, sacrifices are being silently borne by pensioners, activists straining to maximum even in adversity, affecting their health. We shed tears for those who died in thousands all these years. Who has to bear the wrath & curse of such families, certainly LIC & UOI who never exhibited dynamism & assertiveness to resolve their customer constituents of which pensioners also form a significant part. Lack of money power, lung power, muscle power, political power, must be compensated & addressed by only by High Courts & Supreme Court.
Facts are clear as crystal, reason & logic of demands are powerful, no one can deny discrimination, decades have rolled by, none to wipe the tears, demands are modest & legitimate,Court victories are galore & successive, one after another,Goliath never awakens.Sad & sickening.
8) Lastly, it must not be forgotten & it can be rightly claimed, we won the case & all was over perhaps on that bright day 8th August 2013, when Sri Asthanas IA 12 & 13 were admitted, 2) LIC SLPs 29956& 29957 were dismissed & 3) this proviso only went against, tho partially only, as SC Bench gave LIC a fresh lease of life to file fresh SLPs with caution & warning delay may not be normally condoned. It would have been otherwise Celebration Day as matters would have justly concluded with Specific Orders OR final paving the way for easy Final Orders from Jaipur HC ordering LIC to implement SJ verdict dt 12/1/2010 in entirety covering twin issues.
9) With these views of mine, I humbly close this email airing my view that it is not desirable to send any letter or appeal to CJI at this juncture. If, perchance, after complete victory, we sense or notice any complications or untoward developments taking place, that time we can heartily approach him thro letter & in person face to face meeting. I doubt whether such an uneasy situation will come with our Sr Counsels to play a worthwhile, notable & penetrating part to ensure quick victory with ever so many things in our favour.
Greetings
R.B.KISHORE
VP,AIRIEF