Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 27
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has rectified some of the anomalies contained in its orders issued earlier to implement the judgment of the Supreme Court in the rank pay case pertaining to the Fourth Pay Commission.
On implementation of the Fourth Pay Commission, the component rank pay had been deducted from the salary of officers, while calculating their total emoluments and fixing their status vis-à-vis civilian officials. Consequently their emoluments were fixed lower than what they should actually have been if rank pay had been included in the calculations.
Similar anomalies also existed in the Fifth Pay Commission. The anomaly was only discovered years later and thereafter commenced a long legal battle, with the apex court finally ruling in 2010 that the deduction of the rank pay had been illegal.
When the MoD issued orders to implement the SC’s judgment, some phrases were “twisted”, resulting in not only the benefits being restricted to lesser number of officers, but also denying rectification of similar anomalies in the Fifth Pay Commission.
The SC had ruled that officers were entitled to befits and arrears “with effect from” January 1, 1986, but the MoD order stated that benefits would be given to officers in service “as on” January 1, 1986.
This implied officers who got commissioned after this date would not be granted the benefits even though the same pay commission was applicable to them. The service community had contended that the MoD’s orders were not in sync with the essence and sprit of the SC judgment.
While the Service Headquarters took up the issue with the government, a number of veterans, whose arrears and pension fixation were also affected, moved a contempt petition against the MoD. The MoD had also referred the matter to the Attorney General, who had given his opinion in favour of the officers on several issues.
The MoD’s orders issued on Thursday state that the words “as on 1.1.1986” in the earlier order be substituted by “w.e.f.1.1.1986”. New clauses have also been incorporated in the new order which state that similar benefits would also be extended for recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission, which too contained the same anomaly pertaining to rank pay."
Received thru RK Sahni