SC upholds Centre's 'One Rank One Pension' scheme, finds no fault in implementation
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Noting that One Rank-One Pension (OROP) scheme in Armed forces is a policy decision and suffers from no constitutional infirmity, the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the government's decision on the same.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath said that OROP is a policy decision of the Centre and it is not for the court to go into the adjudication of policy matters.
Pronouncing the operating part of the verdict, Justice Chandrachud said that all pensioners who hold the same rank may not form a homogenous class while taking into account the Assured Career Progression and Modified Assured Career Progression.
It directed that the pending re-fixation exercise of OROP, which has not been done due to pendency of the matter before the court after the expiry of five years, should be carried out from July 1, 2019, and arrears be paid to the pensioners in three months.
The verdict came on a plea that has been filed by the Indian Ex-servicemen Movement (IESM) through advocate Balaji Srinivasan against the Centre's formula of OROP.
The IESM had sought implementation of the One Rank-One Pension as recommended by the Bhagat Singh Koshyari Committee with an automatic annual revision, instead of the current policy of periodic review once in five years.
However, the top court had said that whatever it will decide, it will be on the conceptual ground and not on figures.
There is no legal mandate that pensioners who hold the same rank must be given the same pension as they do not constitute a homogenous class, the top court said. It had reserved a verdict on February 23 after a lengthy hearing in the matter for nearly four days.