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POST-3
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The Way Forward
Now, about the WAY FORWARD. The time has not come for pressing the panic button yet. Let us learn to be more patient. Delay of the sort we are witnessing in a Civil Appeal is inevitable, especially when three of them are tagged together. Our Editor has given a laudable and most practicable suggestion, viz the Associations concerned impleading as a party to the case. It will save a great deal of time in trying to make the final verdict applicable to all the pensioners in case it covers only the petitioners and people like Asthana are morally bound to do it since the entire finance
for fighting the legal battle is borne not only by the petitioners but all the pensioners who are members of AIRIEF. We are absolutely on a winning wicket; the Constitutional backing, Hon’ble Bhandaris judgement, the Board Resolution, Shri Nakaras 1983 land mark SC judgement and a host of other quotable decided cases in our favour by different courts of the land, the unacceptably high level of inequity between the pensioners of yester years and today, all pointing towards a certain victory when our case is taken up in September after the vacation. We also, by then, have the calculations ready regarding the total outlay involved for LIC to satisfactorily discharge their liability towards the pensioners. Let us also ascertain the size of the pension fund, annual accretions and its long term sustainability. This, to my mind, appears to be a road block, as affordability is an issue which the judge would like to look into. More than anything else, all the three CASE HANDLERS should show willingness to act as one team, totally aligning with one another and work in tandem so that no opportunity arises for the fissiparous tendencies to raise its ugly head. Please don’t think that I am trying to assume the role of moral highpriest, which by any stretch of imagination I am not. These are certain views I strongly felt about and I gave expression to them.
Thanks again to our Editor for keeping our hopes alive and for enabling us to keep our sanity intact by chipping in with his inimitable cartoons!
M V Venugopalan
(Concluded)
