Although it
is very clear that the method followed by LIC for revision of pension for
pre-August 1997 retirees as at 1/8/1997 was anomalous - as was demonstrated by
its deposits made in the Jaipur and Chandigarh HC Registries - so far LIC has
been holding on to its deliberate misinterpretation of the Rajasthan &
Chandigarh High Court judgments and the letter and spirit of the LIC Board
Resolution dated 24/11/2001. LIC had also cleverly avoided giving a break-up of regular pension and
family pension for the relative deposits
made by them lest the fact of recoveries
(instead of arrears) arising in family
pension should get exposed before the
court.
The contempt
petition before the Chandigarh High Court gave us an opportunity to discover
the glaring anomaly in family pension revision arising out of the faulty basis adopted
for the revision of pension (where existing family pension is Rs 2400 or less)
in respect of an employee retired between 1/8/1992(1/4/1993 in case of Class I
Officers) and 31/7/1997.
The
following algebraic illustration will make the point clear;
The shortfall for the months Feb 2015 to July
15 can easily be worked out by
multiplying the existing basic family pension by 0.008669.
For example,
if the existing basic family pension is Rs 2000/-, the shortfall will be 17.338
or Rs 17/- rounded to the nearest rupee.
Interestingly,
even if the rate of family pension is upwardly revised on the pattern of RBI,
the same anomaly will continue unless the revision in family pension is
done on 1/8/1997 with weightage and
such revision with weightage is effected
on 1/8/2002,1/8/2007 and on all
effective dates of wage revisions in future.
Nothing can
be more telling than this for a strong case for upgradation of both regular and
family pension with weightage on every effective date of wage revision.
I had
already brought this to the notice of Chairman, LIC through calculations as
early as in September 2014.Let us hope it will apply its corporate mind
seriously in the matter before being possibly pulled
up by the Courts.
Greetings.
C H
Mahadevan