A nice discussion with my son Mr Aashutosh Srivastava (Member of Supreme Court Bar Association, New Delhi) yesterday evening.. ...
I discussed with him in very short as to how we can take the best advantage of the existing provisions of Paragraphs 3-A & 3-B in APPENDIX-IV of the irrevocable and paid Statutory contract of General Insurance (Employees') Pension Scheme 1995.
His legal opinion is as under :
Paragraph just like Paragraph 3-A in APPENDIX-IV is missing after any Pay Revision of 01.08.2002, 01.08.2007 & 01.08.2012 to deny the same revised pension to any employee who has retired from service or died before 01.08.2002, before 01.08.2007 and before 01.08.2012 respectively. Therefore, only one cut-off date of 01.08.1997 is applicable to any retired employee to get the revised pension till date. Further, this cut-off date of 01.08.1997 was applicable for the revised pension of 01.08.1997 only.
Paragraph 3-B in APPENDIX-IV has not provided any other cut-off date to discard or to amend the earlier cut-off date of 01.08.1997 as provided in Paragraph 3-A.
The word 'employee' has no relevance to be mentioned in Paragraph 3-B in APPENDIX-IV of the Statutory Pension Scheme of 1995. Hence the same word 'employee' is meant only for retired employee.
Paragraph 3-B is an extension of Paragraph 3-A in APPENDIX-IV. Since Paragraph 3-A deals with the retired employees only, Paragraph 3-B is also dealing with retired employees only. Any Hon'ble High Court or the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India will definitely order to read and treat the same word 'employee' as 'retired employee'.
Dearness Allowance (DA) is paid/payable to employees, whereas Dearness Relief (DR) is paid/payable to retired employees. Paragraph 3-B in APPENDIX-IV clearly provides the revised Dearness Relief (DR) and not the Dearness Allowance (DA). Thus, there is no doubt or ambiguity at all that this Paragraph 3-B in APPENDIX-IV is meant for retired employees only.
Therefore, our earlier legal conclusion is absolutely right that revised pension of 01.08.2002, 01.08.2007 and 01.08.2012 cannot be denied to any employee who has retired from service or died before 01.08.2002, before 01.08.2007 and before 01.08.2012 respectively as per the wordings of Paragraphs 3-A & 3-B in APPENDIX-IV.
Thanks & Regards,
Pramod Srivastava (Pune)