Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 30 High Court has dismissed the plea of various Armed Forces Personnel (AFP) seeking revised pension as per the recommendation of the 6th Central Pay Commission (CPC) granted to those who retired after 1st January 2006 and in tune with the notification of the Ministry of Finance.
The petitioners are all retired personnel from the Central Armed Police Forces- Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which are under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs as such, preferred the writ petition jointly.
They were seeking a direction to pay the revised pension to them as per the recommendations of the 6th Central Pay Commission (CPC) and Office Memorandum dated 06.04.2016 issued by Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, through its Secretary thereby paying revised pension to the petitioners as per the fitment table circulated vide notification of Ministry of Finance dated 30.08.2008.
They further prayed that the authorities be directed to pay them the arrears of differential in the revised pension to which they are entitled and the pension actually received by them w.e.f. 01.01.2006 till the new revised pension is notified as per the 7th CPC.
The Border Security Force (BSF) in opposition to the plea of these retirees, filed a detailed reply submitting therein that the pensions of the retired personnel have already been revised strictly in accordance with the recommendations of the 6th Central Pay Commission and the subsequent Office Memoranda dated 28.01.2013and 06.04.2016 and in no case was the pension fixed at an amount lower than 50 % of the sum of the minimum of the pay band plus grade pay corresponding to the pre-revised pay scale from which the petitioners had retired.
Likewise, the CRPF has asserted that the revision of pension complies with the provisions regarding pre-2006 pensioners. The revised pension has been fixed in the corresponding pay bands and grade pay, as prescribed under the Government orders, without exceeding the prescribed limits, and no pro-rata reduction has been applied.
Justice M A Chowdhary after having regard to the discussions of both the parties and in view of the Apex Court’s ruling on the issue concluded that that the retired-petitioners through the medium of the instant petition have misconceived the Central Pay Commission recommendations.
The court further added that the aggrieved retirees have also misconceived the subsequent Government Orders and the Memoranda issued to explain the implementation, to construe that they have retired from their services prior to January 1, 2006 and are entitled to be placed in the revised pay scale which was granted to the in-service employees of their rank, who retired after 01.01.2006, so as to get the equivalent pension. “Viewed thus, the petition is found to be without any merit and substances and is therefore dismissed, along with all connected applications”, the court concluded.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
