Honourable Finance Minister,
Government of India, New Delhi
Respected Sir,
Re: Plight of LIC’s Pensioners
At the outset, we heartily congratulate the NDA Government on its splendid and clear mandate given by the voters of this country with the fond hope that the misdeeds of the UPA Govt are undone for the betterment of each and every citizen of this great country. We are equally happy that a legal luminary like you with erudite and clear thinking is bestowed upon the portfolio of Finance. We LIC’s Pensioners in particular, look to you with hope and aspirations in resolving the long pending legal wrangling and render justice. We implore upon your personal intervention in respect of the following aspects for issuing necessary instructions to undo the injustice perpetrated on us by the outgoing UPA Govt.
1) One Rank One Pension- It is heartening to note that Shri.Modiji , Hon PM has assured ‘One Rank One Pension’ to the Military Personnel on every platform including the floor of the Parliament. Analogically, we strongly feel, it should be made applicable to LIC pensioners too for the grave fact that Executive Directors retired 10-15 years back are getting a pittance as pension, much less than the pension payable to a Clerk retiring now. This is a great anomalous situation indeed! To render justice to the LIC pensioners and with a view to obviate this anomaly, LIC’s Board passed a resolution dtd.24th November 2001, recommending 100% neutralization of Dearness Relief to pre-August 1997 retirees and up gradation of basic pension on every wage revision to existing employees. Till date the said resolution is not implemented by LIC/GOI. Single Judge Bench of the Rajasthan HC, Jaipur, deciding the Writ Petitions 6676/1998 & 654/2007, gave its verdict dtd.12-01-2010, directing the LIC to implement its resolution dtd 24-11-2001 in- toto. Punjab & Haryana High Court, Chandigarh, gave a similar verdict, ordering arrears to be paid with 12% interest. And also Delhi High Court in a similar case, basing its order on the verdict of Jaipur Bench of Rajasthan HC, ordered the implementation “in rem”. Unfortunately till date the judgment is not implemented and LIC/GOI have been engaged in protracted legal battle with the hapless pensioners and case is pending in Supreme Court vide SLPs 16755-16758/2013. Poor pensioners are being made to run from pillar to post from one Court to the other yearning for speedy justice. Legal battle has been protracted for more than 15 years which is in contravention to the 4 year old National Litigation Policy. Said Policy is in a limbo. Govt should not be a compulsive litigant in respect of cases pertaining to retiral/pension benefits of pensioners/senior citizens. No appeals should be preferred by the Govt if this Conscientitious Policy is to be made a reality. But alas, no due regard was given to the National Litigation Policy by the very authority which formulated it. (By the previous UPA-2 Govt). About 40,000 LIC’s Pensioners would remember you in the annals of Indian parliamentary history as the Finance Minister who respected the Rule of Law, if you kindly issue instructions to implement the captioned judgments in toto. Truly said by the legal luminary of the country Shri.V.R.Krishna Iyer- ‘ What is discriminatory is arbitrary and what is arbitrary is unconstitutional’.
It is pertinent here to note that VIth Pay Commission has recommended up gradation of basic pension consequent upon wage revision of Govt employees. Also in March 2014, Govt accorded in principle approval for up gradation of pension of RBI Pensioners with every wage revision and talks with the RBI employees’ associations are in progress.
Hence we earnestly request the Govt to withdraw all litigations and honour the verdict of Jaipur Bench of Rajasthan HC granting 100% DR neutralization to all pensioners and upgrade basic pension with every wage revision to ensure equity and fair play. It has been decided by the Supreme Court in a famous Nakara case that all pensioners should be put on a similar footing irrespective of their dates of retirement.
2) Family Pension- VIth Pay Commission also recommended 30% of last pay drawn as family pension and full pension if one completes 20 years of service. For RBI pensioners, the Govt issued gazette notification dtd Jan 12-Jan 18, 2013, granting flat 30% of last pay drawn as family pension and full pension if 20 years service is completed. We request the same to be adopted for LIC pensioners.
3) Computation of Basic Pension- VIth Pay Commission has also recommended computation of pension as average of last 10 months’ basic pay or 50% of last drawn basic whichever is beneficial to the retiree. This ensures un anomalous situation if one retires in the intervening period of new wage revision. We request same rule to be applied to LIC pensioners as thousands of pensioners are affected in LIC due to the faulty method of computation of pension, being followed in LIC in such cases.
4) Increased pension to pensioners of age 80 and above- VIth Pay Commission has recommended increased pension to very senior citizens of age 80 and above. The same may please be granted to LIC Pensioners too.
5) One more pension option- We have been demanding one more option for pension to those who did not opt earlier. The said facility was given to Bank Pensioners during the last wage revision. But LIC employees /pensioners were deprived of this offer. Hence we request the Govt to grant one more option to opt for pension as there are hardly 15% who have been left out of the pension net.
Anticipating your kind and favourable action in the matter,
With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
General Secretary