Hold your breath!
Family pensioners of the
pre August 1997 retirees may
well turn out to be the unintended
beneficiaries of the SC interim
order dated 7/5/2015.Not that they
are going to get a bonanza
from LIC, but on the contrary
they are going to be spared
of the recoveries that would
result from the so called DR
anomaly removal and 100% DR
neutralisation as a sequel to the latest
SC order.
Most of us would not have forgotten that while depositing the amounts in Jaipur & Chandigarh HC Registries, invariably recoveries arose in respect of family pensioners instead of arrears to them and such recoveries were deducted from the amounts due to the deceased pensioners by LIC without showing the break-up of regular pension and family pension separately. This itself is evidence enough that the methodology adopted by LIC for revision of pension in the cases of those petitioners was atrociously erroneous and anomalous.
Ironically, if interim relief as ordered by SC on 7/5/2015 is paid @ 20% of the amount deposited in the HC Registry in the name of a surviving respondent-pensioner, logically LIC should also recover 20% of the amount adjusted as recoverable from a family pensioner from the payment in the name of the deceased pensioner. So the loss for the family pensioner of a deceased original petitioner is only 20% of proposed recoveries! Fortunately non-petitioner family pensioners have escaped such recovery thanks to the SC order restricting the interim relief only to the original petitioners and not enlarging it to all eligible pensioners/family pensioners!
As the saying goes, "The surgery is successful, but the patient is dead!" .
With greetings,
C H Mahadevan
C H Mahadevan