Dear Sir,
Sh.M.Srinivasa Murthy, has put my name at number one in his list of sycophants published in the Chronicle. Instead of joining the issue with Sh.Murthy, I would prefer to go by the numerous sane comments which have appeared in the Chronicle contributed by Sh. Subramanian, Sh.J.Aboobucker from London, Sh. K.S. Raman, Sh. CSR Krishna Rao and others. An 'inconvenient question' is disturbing Sh. Murthy. It is his problem.... because I have full confidence the way our case has been fought so far.
Whether intentionally or otherwise, efforts are being made to divert the attention of pensioners who are being denied justice by stonewalling the implementation of fair orders of SB Hon'ble Justice Bhandari which have not been "stayed" even by the Highest Court. Precisely the inconvenient question is as to why LIC is now not prepared to implement its own Board's Resolution and why the Govt. has taken a rigid and tough stand though it has not come out openly in the court and is using LIC to thwart the implementation of court orders.
The intentions of the Govt.MOF will be clear as revealed in a letter No. DO No.S-11016/2007-Ins.III dated 20th Feb., 2009 from the then Minister of State for Finance Sh. P.K.Bansal addressed to Dr. Subramanian Swamy. The relevant para reads: "The matter has been looked into. Insurance Employees' pension scheme is broadly based on the pension scheme of bank employees and since no change has taken place in the pension scheme of banks' employees, it is felt that a change in the scheme for the insurance employees would cause ripple effects in the banking sector and other related sectors.....
On 5.05.2011, Sh. S.K.Mohanti, Under Secretary, GOI MOF submiited an Affidavit in the Allahabad High Court which reads:"Pension once fixed cannot be revised with every wage revision thereafter. Provision of Sec.48 of the LIC Act gives power to Central Govt... The cost of allowing updation of pension with every wage revision may be very high... will adversely affect the corporation and also policyholders interest. ( The issues raised in the affidavit have been dealt with in the SB Judgement of Hon’ble Justice Bhandari )
We will observe that above referred letter of MOF was sent in Feb., 2009 i.e. before the SB Judgement delivered in Jan., 2010. And Mr. Mohanti’s Affidavit was submitted in May, 2011 i.e. after the judgement and also after the Review Petition by LIC had been dismissed. It clearly shows that undeterred by the Court orders, the MOF did not take any cognizance of judicial process which was and has been in favour of pensioners.
The other day I was listening to a lively debate on a TV channel re: judicial process. Luckily, politicians were not on the panel. One of the participants startled me when he told that these days 6-7 top lawyers in the SC are charging anything between 20 lacs to 25 lacs per appearance in 2G Scam and Coalgate allotment scams. They are being paid hefty fee simply to over-awe the judiciary, make use of their oratory skill and somehow circumvent the course of legal process.
Precisely this is what GOI MOF is doing in our case as has been evident in various Court Orders which have been clearly in our favour but simultaneously LIC has been provided escape route. One of my advocate friends remarked that the job of good lawyer is to interpret the orders in favour of their client. Supreme Court says “STAY NOT GRANTED” but it does not mean IMPLEMENT SB JUDGEMENT……..hence go on fighting.
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successfully kept the legal battle alive despite such odds. With the change of Govt at Centre should the pensioners hope to have compassionate hearing because the Secretaries sitting in the Ministry of Finance have adopted a stern attitude against LIC pensioners and have converted this into a policy matter encasing the entire public sector ?
But friends, we must continue our legal fight and have faith in judiciary. Each one is free to adopt his own strategy. Instead of slighting those who have kept the hope alive, let us lock horns with those forces which are out to deny justice to aged pensioners of LIC.