M Sreenivasa Murty

Mighty LIC acting Small 
OR Is it an admission of guilt/
contempt of Supreme Court?

The Hon’ble Supreme Court issued Interim Directions to LIC on 7 May 2015 to pay 20% of the amount payable under the Judgement, within six weeks. The time given ended on or around 21 June 2015.

LIC writes to GNS Federation on 6 July 2015, calling for ‘valid member’ details under Thirteen (13) Heads. (Exact plain copy attached to this Post).CLICK HERE The communication addressed to the General Secretary of the Federation was kept under wraps by the addressee. As soon as the contents came in to public view, we cried ‘foul’ because it amounts to contemptuous meddling with the 7 May Order as far as LIC was concerned and at the same it was a serious TRAP for the GNS Federation.

How the ‘consensual collusion’ between ‘I don’t care’ LIC and the ‘ever willing to oblige’ GNS, played havoc to deprive the entire community of Pensioners (of 20% interim payment) barring about 1200 across the country, is very well known to all.

I had applied under the RTI Act, for a certified copy of the letter dated 6 July 2015. I attached a plain copy of the letter itself to my application. It would have taken just a couple of hours to furnish me the copy requested online. But as a I suspected and feared, LIC has been showing my request as ‘being processed’ for an entire month (it has 30 days’ time under the Act).

Exactly before the stipulated time ended, LIC replies that the information sought cannot be furnished under Sec 8 (1)(h) of the RTI Act, as the matter is ‘sub-judice’. The reply dated 9.12.2015 is also attached.

I will of course exercise my right of appeal against the denial of the information and will eventually succeed in obtaining the document also because LIC unashamedly cited a Section which cannot come to its rescue on a proper reading of the provision. That is a moot point. What hurts and what is relevant is that LIC these days resorts to any method to harass its Pensioners. LIC’s intention is only to delay it as long as possible.

Obviously because LIC’s communication in question is a brazen violation of the SC Order of 7 May 2015 and it can land itself in trouble. A fear of being exposed and be questioned.