I was shocked to find the heading in Chronicle
that the 2 Judge Bench in GIC National Insurance
VRS Retirees case goes against the spirit of Nakara
judgement. Any judgement, till it is heard &
pronounced, one must keep his fingers crossed.
Here the title was negative & can send shock
waves to pensioner fraternity.
It is better to avoid such headings & atleast quote from where that doomsday picture is painted. It is true that pensioners may always need oxygen support to breathe,as even the legal system is choked, adversely affecting pensioners genuine interest & welfare. More so on the eve of the DDay 14 january 2015, it is worthwhile to scan, & then insert such spicy info, out to frustrate the already beleaguered pensioners exhibiting such remarkable patience & perseverance.
2) I was away for 2 days & when I went thro the plethora of emails, this in chronicle blog put me out of gear. I have gone through the judgement. Out & out ,the reasoning & rationale is only in connection with VRS retirees in particular. Of course that was the subject matter of the hearing. The eminent Judges have ,at great length ,pointed out that when once VRS is taken, such group of retirees go out of employers radar & no longer connected with the institution. The sum & substance, the tone & tenor of the judgement clearly asserts that VRS retirees opted for the institutions plan of voluntary retirement, they enjoyed fairly substantial benefits as a fair method of compensation. The judgement also lays stress on the organizations powers to prune expenditure,escalaing costs & when this plan was announced, they have outlined the methodology & amount in detail,which are reasonable & cannot be called as vindictive or termed as adversely affecting constitutional rights of retirees. Viewed in this sense, the Bench ordered that no further revision of pension can take place & what all they deserved by this act of institution,inclusive of notional 5 year addition to length of service was also included already for pension calculation & settled & so there is no reason to accept their arguments & hence dismissed the petition of VRS retirees.
3) All of us have gone through a spate of judgements in respect of regular retirees after full length of service with the institution & they stand apart from the group of VRS retirees. We also revel at many many positive judgements in favour of pensioners for pension upgradation with every wage revision.Latest such verdict was from the then Chief Justice R.M.Lodha alongwith 4 other Judge companions ,who unequivocally declared that the defence forces must get fitment of pension revision from 1/1/200,the 6th Pay Commission date, & not 1/9/2012,which the UOI was clamouring & insisting but SC Bench stuck to their decision.
4) There are plentiful judgements allowing pension to those who resigned & who did not avail of pension.Courts empathetically considered Resignations as Retirements in normal course .Banks have many such favourable judgements which they have circulated. We also saw recently that Courts propounded that no recovery should be made of any revelation of excesss payments or wrongdoing by Employees, if such investigation comes after 5 years & also in respect of Category C & D employees ie Class 3 & 4, & also in the case of pensioners.It becomes clear, therefore, the general trend is supportive of pensioners cause & there should not be any room for despair or disappointment with this judgement, applicable uniquely for VRS retirees only.
