Dear All,
We finally won, this matter was not merely a case but a mission for
us!!!
And our patience and efforts were tried to the extreme... despite
the earlier final order of the Supreme Court, the fruits of success kept on
alluding us since the UOI chose to take the most unusual course of persuing a
recall application, which was heard on several dates over the last 2
years.
Today, after marathon arguments from morning till almost rising of the
Court and several anxious moments of flips and flops, the Judges were finally
convinced and saw through the flimsy excuses of the Govt.
It is my priviledge and pleasure to announce that justice finally
prevailed, please see the following note for details and circulate to all
retired and serving officers and their kin so they can finally get their
dues.
Congrats and regards,
Aishwarya.
*****************
LANDMARK DAY FOR DEFENCE OFFICERS- RANK PAY CASE
Subject : I.A. NO. 9 IN T.P. (Civil) 56 of 2007 – UOI & Others
Versus N.K. Nair & Others.
* The aforesaid matter along with connected matter came up for hearing
before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India before a Bench of Hon’ble Mr. Justice
R.M. Lodha, Mr. Justice T.S. Thakur and Mr. Justice Anil R. Dave before Court
No.7, Item No. 9 today i.e. 04.09.2012.
* This was an application filed by UOI for
modification/directions/recall of order dated 08.03.2010 passed by this Hon’ble
Court in T.P. (Civil) No. 56 of 2007 and other writ petitions, by which the
Hon’ble Supreme Court had agreed with the reasoning of the Kerala High Court in
the case of Major Dhanapalan and directed proper fixation of rank pay from
01.01.1986 and interest @ 6% per annum.
* The core issue in these petitions is with regard to the wrong fixation
of rank pay awarded by the Fourth Pay Commission by the Union of India.
* The background to the core issue is that in the fourth pay commission,
the element of rank pay was introduced for all ranks from Captain to Brigadier
in the Army and their equivalent ranks in the Air Force and Navy, in addition
to pay in the integrated scale. The rationale of this was to make the Armed
Forces an attractive career option and to continue the edge that was always
provided to the defence officers vis-à-vis their civilian counterparts, owing
to the difficult and challenging nature of job profile.
* However, at the time of fixation, the rank pay was first deducted to
arrive at the total emoluments and thereafter added after fixation in the
integrated scale. This ensured that the final fixation of the total pay of the
officer became at par with his civilian counterpart and the edge was
neutralized during fixation.
* The issue is particularly significant since the services have a
longstanding grievance that they get a raw deal from the bureaucrats who have
systematically worked on ensuring that the historic edge that the defence
officers had with respect to their civilian counterparts is first
neutralized and eventually reversed. Interestingly, in this case also the Armed
Forces (Army-Navy and Air Force) and the Chiefs of Staff Committee had
recommended not to persue the litigation further, however, the Ministry of
Defence chose to press the application for recall on several grounds including
a total financial liability of about Rs. 1600 crores.
* Major A.K. Dhanapalan was the first officer to challenge this
erroneous fixation before the Hon’ble Kerala High Court in O.P. No. 2448/2006.
The Hon’ble Single Judge, Kerala High Court vide order dated 05.10.1998 found
no justification in deducting the rank pay and directed the UOI to re-fix the
pay without deducting the rank pay. The Hon’ble Division Bench of the High Court
also affirmed finding of the Ld. Single Judge and dismissed the Writ Appeal No.
518/1999 of UOI vide order dated 04.07.2003. The UOI challenged the dismissal
before the Hon’ble Supreme Court which was also dismissed vide order dated
12.07.2005 in SLP (Civil) No. CC-5908/2005.
* Thereafter, several petitions were filed by similarly placed officers
before different High Courts and different benches of Armed Forces Tribunal.
However, because of the pendency of the aforesaid I.A., the entire issue was in
limbo and no benefit had been granted to the deserving officers, apart from the
individual case of Major A.K. Dhanapalan.
* Today, the Hon’ble Supreme Court dismissed the Application of Union of
India finding no merits or grounds. While doing so, the Hon’ble Supreme Court
has also directed the UOI to re-fix the pay of affected officers from
01.01.1986, without deducting the rank pay.
*The Hon’ble Supreme Court has also directed the UOI to pay interest @
6% p.a. from 01.01.2006 to all the officers, whether or not they have filed any
petition before any of the High Courts or Benches of Armed Forces Tribunal,
within 12 weeks from today. The Hon’ble Court has also directed that all
pending petitions before any of the High Courts or Benches of Armed Forces
Tribunal, by similarly placed officers will be governed by this order.
* This order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court will benefit a large number of
officers who were in the rank of Captain to Brigadier in the Army and
equivalent ranks in the Air Force and Navy, between 01.01.1986 to 01.01.2006.
* The matter was argued by the Ld. Solicitor General for India on behalf
of UOI and defended by Gp Capt Karan Singh Bhati, Advocate-on-record and Ms
Aishwarya Bhati, Advocate-on-record on behalf of a large number of individual
officers and Retired Defence Officers Association.
Ms. Aishwarya Bhati
Advocate-on-Record
Supreme Court of India.
18 Todermal Road,
Bengali Market,
New Delhi-1
Telephone: 011- 41525860, 23711238
Mobile: 9350852003
No praise will ever be enough .
ReplyDeleteGREAT WORK Ms BHATI AND G/C Bhati...
ReplyDeleteMy heartfelt gratitude to Sr Adv Mahabir Singh, Advocates on Record Gp Capt (retd) KB Bhati and Ms Aishwarya Bhati. Their patience, despite our (mine included) impatience at the adjournments, is the main reason for every one of us Capts to Brigs from 1.1.1986 being rewarded after 26 years.
ReplyDeleteNow, we await the copy of the judgment because only then will the CDA (O), CDA (N) and CDA (AF)start their stop clocks for the 12 weeks or 3 months stipulated by the Hon'ble Supreme Court.
Air Mshl (retd) S Y Savur PVSM AVSM
Sir, The MOD may have to issue official instuctions first for the CDA's to begin their action. In the case of IAF, pay arrears may have to be worked out and paid by AFCAO. They might have already done some anticipatory spade work in this regard.
DeleteYou deserve all the praise, and any amount of praise will be too little for the efforts and patience for fighting the government machinery which used all kinds of chicanery to trump your cause. Hats off to you and your team
ReplyDeleteHATS OFF TO OUR LEGAL TEAM!
ReplyDeleteA fabulous Job ! Congrats to our Legal Team as well to All of US !!
ReplyDeleteCONGRATULATIONS LEGAL TEAM.HATS OFF TO YOU.MAY I CONTRIBUTE MY HUMBLE PRAISE ALSO TO YOU ALL.
ReplyDeleteMEHAR CHAND
So how do retired officers like us (premat ret dec 2002) get our arrears? Does this also effect our pension fixation? In that case won't our pensions also rise? How do we then claim this amount? Please advise.
ReplyDeleteWg Cdr D Lavanian (retd)
+91 9970921266
Dear Lavanian,
DeleteYes, it certainly affects on your pension. Let us wait and see what amount of ranks pay is fixed by the GOI. Once the rank pay is fixed for Capt to Brig and equivalents in other two services, you can calculate your arrears. In the mean time make a ready reckoner and keep it ready with you with date of promotion to Capt, date of promotion to Maj, date of promotion to Lt Col, Col & Brig then work out monthly rank pay and calculate DA at prevalent rates that time. DA percentages in Vth and Vth CPC can be down loaded from Google. If you have retired prior to Dec 2005, your pension also gets affected and you will get some arrears on pension till Dec 2005. Let us wait and see till the rank pay is fixed by the GOI as per the Honourable Supreme Court Judgement of 04 Sep 2012.
Col Raju
Would like to understand, whether this would be applicable to full time NCC officers who have got retired durring the given period..
ReplyDeleteMaj.Haridas
No doubt in that if you are under MOD.
ReplyDeleteCol Raju
Dear Friends,
ReplyDeleteNo doubt, that it is mainly due to the pioneering efforts of Maj Dhanapalan Retd and his judicial victory at every level of judicial hierarchy, that the rank pay case for the rest of officers of the defence services was mooted. Maj Dhanapalan's great victory paved the way for some more officers to take to judicial remedy for the case. During this period, I presume there was the birth of RDOA, which then displayed immense patience and ingenuity and also left no stones un-turned to achieve the resounding victory against the evil designs of Central Government duly misguided by the cunning and corrupt bureaucracy. At one stage it appeared that even the Apex Court was playing ball to their mischievous games and designs.
But then good sense eventually prevailed and the RDOA by hiring brilliant lawyers and with its sustained efforts, hard work, perseverance, insistence and patience was able to obtain a favourable judgement for all the affected defense officers, though the interest element took a major beating. 4th September 2012, undoubtedly would go down as a historic day for a brilliant legal battle won by the Defence Services.
The period of 12 weeks given by the Apex Court is quite reasonable for getting the arrears, which has also been agreed by the Learned Solicitor General, but before that the Government guided by the bureaucracy, aggrieved by the failure of their wicked designs, will have to be compelled to issue necessary executive orders for payment of the arrears within the specified period. It may be pertinent to suggest that some ESM organisation or even RDOA would have to act as watchdogs till the final implementation of the Apex Court Judgement.
All the same the Victory (with capital V) is most deserving and no praise is less for appreciating the gigantic efforts of the RDOA and its heads viz Col BK Sharma and Col Satwant Singh for making this dream a reality.
Last but not the least we sincerely and truly salute Maj Dhanapalan for being the pioneer of the rank pay case and should be named nothing less than "The Father of Rank Pay Case" as he has etched a special name in the legal history of the defence forces. It would be the minimal honour which we all grateful defence officers could do, to recognise his pioneering efforts and achievement.
What sort of delegation would pronounce this achievement / recognition can be jointly decided by the various ESM groups, which are also sincerely advised by me and my colleagues, for holding tightly each others hands, once and for all, to achieve greater Victories for the defence community.
It is my heartfelt suggestion for consideration of one and all. I would also like to suggest, that we would have to find an identical "The Father of OROP" to get our genuine and justified demand of OROP, fulfilled as early as possible. The earlier he takes birth would be better.
Best of Luck and regards to all.
Col LK Anand Retd
Dear All,
ReplyDeleteThough the Vth CPC was implemented wef 01 Jan 96, the arrears were paid in Jan 1998. Till Dec 1997 the pay as per IVth CPC was paid. The DA paid in Dec 1997 was @ 170% up to the Basic pay of Rs 3500/- pm and beyond basic pay of 3500/- pm the DA was paid @ 135.23%. This can be clearly seen from the working out sheet attached to pay slip for the month of Jan 1998 by CDA (O) Pune. Accordingly, a Captain whose basic pay was less than or up to Rs 3500/- was entitled for rank pay of Rs 200/- plus DA Rs 340/- (@ 170%). Thus the total rank pay including DA entitled for a Captain in Dec 1997 was Rs 540/- pm but surprisingly wef Jan 1996 the rank pay fixed for a Captain was just Rs 400/- (Please refer your pay slip for the month of Jan 1998 and the arrears sheet attached thereto). The rank pay wef 01 Jan 1996 in Vth CPC was not a new element but was an element continued from previous CPC (IVth CPC). The aim and purpose of successive pay commissions was to step up the pay drawn. Thus the rank pay of Rs 200/- pm for Captain which was introduced on 01 Jan 1986 works out to Rs 540/- pm with DA @ 170@ immediately prior to payment of arrears of Vth CPC. In the next successive pay commission (Vth CPC) the rank pay for Captain Steps up to Rs 600/- per month and not Rs 400/- per month. Logically when the Captain’s rank pay of 200/- pm steps up to Rs 600/- pm in Vth CPC, the rank pay for other ranks also steps up in Vth CPC wef 01 Jan 1996 to Rs 1800/- pm for Majors, Rs 2400/- for Lt Cols, Rs 3000/- for Cols and Rs 3600/- for Brig. The logic is when a Captains rank pay of IV th CPC becomes triple with DA immediately before payment of Vth CPC arrears the rank pay of Majs to Brig should also step up to three-times. This is only food for thought and not for pointing out any one before the fresh calculations are worked out and the arrears are paid to the concerned officers.
As per the Honourable Supreme Court judgment the UOI (MOD) is to fix the rank pay from 01 Jan 1986 and pay the arrears to all the effected officers. The latest news says “Meanwhile, a fresh calculation has been ordered following a Supreme Court judgment”.
Let us wait and see as to what rank pay for each rank the Govt is going to fix wef 01 Jan 1986 (IVth CPC), wef 01 Jan 1996 (Vth CPC) and as to how the further calculations are worked out.
If the rank pay is fixed as per the logic brought out above, for certain ranks it makes the MSP much below of rank pay plus DA drawn till 01 Jan 2006.
Dear Veterans please take this just as food for thought only. Please do not react to this based on your pay slips immediately.
UOI ACHIEVED ITS AIM THROUGH I.A. 9 FILED TO RECALL THE HONOURABLE SUPREME COURT ORDER OF 08 MARCH 2010. SEE HOW?
ReplyDeleteJudgment of 08 Mar 2010 spells out interest to be paid from 01 Jan 1986 on rank pay arrears.
UOI files I.A. 9 to recall the Orders of 08 Mar 2010
Judgment of 04 Sep 2012 relaxes the burden of interest which will now be paid from 01 Jan 2006.
What the MOD gained and what the veterans and serving officers lost?
See the table below;
The total interest from 1986 to Dec 2012 on the total rank pay from Jan 1986 to Dec 1995 is 144.25% (If you don’t believe ask me will send the excel sheet)
The total interest from 01 Jan 2006 to Dec 2012 on total rank pay from Jan 1986 to Dec 1995 is 42%
As per UOI and SG the total burden to exchequer is Rs 1600 crore calculated prior to filing I.A. 9 based on Honourable Supreme Court Order of 08 Mar 2010.
Rs 1600 Crore calculated by MOD includes interest at 144.25%. The interest is 944.93 Crore & the total rank pay for 20000 officers is Rs 655.07 Crore
After the Honourable Supreme Court judgment on 04 Sep 2012 the interest rate came down to 42% only. The rank pay of Rs 655.07 crore accrues interest of Rs 275.13 Crore at 42%. The total burden on the exchequer now is Rs 930.20 Crore. (ie 655.07 Crore + 275.13 Crore)
What is achieved by UOI is that the MOD saved Rs 669.80 Crore (Rs 1600 Crore – Rs 930.20 Crore). This total saving is on interest (Rs 944.93 Crore – 275.13 Crore = Rs 669.80 Crore.)
Good, three cheers to UOI for saving Rs 669.80 Crore. But the UOI & MOD should look back and realise as to at whose cost they made this saving, for whose benefit they made this saving, from whose services they made this saving, at whose faults the exchequer today got burdened, at whose mistakes and faults the burden came on exchequer today, why not those who caused this burden to the exchequer today contribute the burden as penalty for their mistakes and failures. Any answers?
Finally the looser are honest armed forces officers who never take the route the way the country’s civilian crowed takes by agitations, rasta rokos, strikes, destruction and so many.
We waited for 26 years, finally some thing came. But how can this fruit reaches those who are no more now. Will the UOI & MOD understand this loss?
THOUGH THE HONESTY LOOSES BUT FINALLY IT WINS.
HONESTY PAYS IN LONG RUN.
Col Raju
Col Raju has done a great job for all the calculations. The savings of Rs669.80 crore at the cost of genuine beneficiaries
ReplyDeletewho served the country at far flung inhospitable conditions away from their near and dear ones. Will these politicians ever realise this.
Col H D Sharma
Dear Sunlit and all Brother Officers,
DeleteWe all must understand that the fixation of AF Officers pay (Capt to Brig) on 01 Jan 1986 in IVth CPC and on 01 Jan 1996 in Vth CPC are two entirely different issues. This is not being understood by many of us.
Rank pay was introduced in IVth CPC wef 01 Jan 1986 for AF Officers which was over and above the basic pay fixed at par with our civilian counter parts. Just understand the logic conveyed by this sentence.
When the pay was fixed on 01 Jan 1986 for the first time after the introduction of the rank pay wef 01 Jan 1986, our total emoluments which were worked out at par with our civilian counter parts were not granted to us as basic pay but rank pay was first deducted and the balance was granted (may be stepped up in the integrated scale) as basic pay to us. Just think yourself and tell me that, in this way, was not our rank pay was also indirectly granted to our civilian counter parts? Just sharpen your ideas, you will get the hint. The basic wrong was in the Army Instruction issued by the MoD for calculation of pay in IV CPC. If our AF Officers still not understand what mistake was done by the Govt in Army Instruction, I will quote another example here which clearly indicates the insight of our bureaucrats.
The rank pay introduced in IVth CPC was continued in Vth CPC. Just see your fixation sheet attached to your pay-slip for the month of Jan 1998. Our total emoluments were worked out after adding unrevised basic and unrevised rank pay with DA and IRs. These were the total emoluments which a civilian counter part also got. It means the unrevised rank pay was also given to our civilian counter parts in Vth CPC. In addition to this mistake, our revised rank pay (doubling the unrevised rank pay) was deducted from the total emoluments of AF Officers the deducted amount was give to us as revised rank pay. The bureaucrats did double mistake in admitting our rank pay in Vth CPC.
So far I brought two issues above. Before proceeding to third issue, I would like all our AF Officers Serving and veterans to enalise and clearly understand the following:-
(a) Rank is part of Basic Pay
(b) Rank Pay forms part of basic pay.
The Govt fixed our pay in Vth CPC by considering the rank pay as part of basic pay and in that run the government granted rank pay to our civilian counter parts also in their basic pay.
The clear definition of rank is that “The Rank pay forms part of basic Pay, runs collateral to basic pay and earns all those allowances which basic pay earns”, but it is not part of basic pay to be added to basic pay for fixation of pay at par with our civilian counter parts. In Vth CPC there were two issues involved, one was fixation of our basic pay which should be at par with our civilian counter parts and the other part was fixation of rank pay which includes unrevised rank pay, DA, IR and 40@% there of and this should have been worked in the same way the basic pay was worked out ie unrevised basic pay, DA, IR and 40% of unrevised basic pay. If this was fixed this way, the rank pay in Vth CPC goes three folds to the unrevised rank pay which we got till 31 Dec 1995. Hope you all understood now.
Is implementation of the Honourable Supreme Court judgment really impacts with extensive burden on exchequer? If you ask me I say “NO”. The rank pay meant for us was already paid to our civilian counter parts by deducting it from our total emoluments. Why can’t it be recovered now by those who acted so smartly in downgrading us and benefiting our civilian counter parts? But whatever is the case, no point in digging those things now, what we are interested is we must get our dues. But we as honest people our country it always remain on the back of our mind that undue dues were paid to our civilian counter parts for two decades.
Dear Sunlit and all Officers,
DeleteLet us first understand that the rank pay granted to us was exclusively for our AF Officers only and no civilian counter part is granted such rank pay. Then why should we talk of what rank pay to be added or deducted to/from basic pay. Rank pay is not part of basic pay but it forms part of basic pay for all the benefits what a basic pay accrues over the time. Then, while fixation of our basic pay in Vth CPC why should the unrevised rank pay drawn during IVth CPC be added to basic emoluments and then why should the revised rank pay be deducted from such total emoluments. This is all against the purpose of granting rank pay to AF Officers (Capt to Brig) in IVth and Vth CPC.
Adding of unrevised rank pay to basic pay for arriving at total emoluments in Vth CPC and then making us at par with civilian counter parts means the civilian counter parts also got the rank pay granted to us. When govt says our basic is fixed at par with civilian counter parts, for such comparison, our rank pay should not be added to our basic pay.
In Vth CPC the unrevised basic plus DA @ the % drawn on 01 Jan 1996 plus IR I plus IR II Plus 40% of unrevised basic all together became total emoluments for govt employees. Our basic also should have been fixed in similar way without adding rank pay, and then only our basic pay becomes comparable with civilian counter parts. After fixing the basic, our Rank pay should have been fixed in the same way such as unrevised rank pay plus DA @ the % drawn on 01 Jan 1996 plus IR I plus IR II plus 40% of unrevised rank pay, then the revised rank pay is fixed in the next slab of such total emoluments. This way the rank pay drawn in IVth CPC triples in Vth CPC. Ranks pay forms part of Basic pay means this only and not adding it to basic to calculate the revised pay. This working out or calculations is nothing to do with permutations and combinations.
We all must insist the govt to keep our rank pay corollary, collateral and parallel to our basic pay as the rank pay gets all those allowances and benefits which basic pay gets over the time.
In Vth CPC pay fixation, if our revised pay was at par with civilian counter parts, the civilian counter parts were also paid rank pay. No doubt in that as the revised pay included the rank pay of IVth CPC. This was the first mistake and the second mistake was of fixing rank pay @ double the IVth CPC rank pay without any calculations and the third mistake done by the MOD was deducting the revised rank pay from total emoluments. There were three mistakes in pay fixation in Vth CPC where as there was only one mistake in pay fixation in IVth CPC.
In Vth CPC if the rank pay was calculated separately and then the revised rank pay was fixed, it would have, till 31 Dec 2005, fetched the DA and other allowances more than the grade pay which was introduced to us in VIth CPC by discontinuing the rank pay. This is not food for thought but an eye opener. Calculate yourself and you will come to know that there is so much to meet the eyes.
Good work on this. Truly a helpful blog.
ReplyDeleteThe D day for payout of arrears works out to 05 Dec 12 ,as directed by the judgement ,namely 12 weeks from day of judgement which was given on 05 Sept12.
ReplyDeleteDear Anony,
ReplyDelete12 weeks means 84 days. Judgement date was 04 Sep 2012. Start counting 12 weeks time from 05 Sep, it ends on 27 Nov 2012 and not 5 Dec 2012.
However a day before completion of 12 weeks time, that was on 26 Nov 2012 MOD issued letter No 34(6)/2012-D(Pay/Services) of 26 Nov 2012 saying that instructions are being issued to all concerned for fixing of pay without deducting rank pay and for payment of arrears to effected officers.
Dear Colonel,
ReplyDeleteThanx for correcting the mathematical error and the info regarding issue of MOD letter.The true test of the pudding lies in eating it & Hope that D day comes soon.In any case the D day set by the court has slipped.Will the interest meter be on after due date? Any penalty clause for not obeying court order in a timely manner?
Best Regards,
Anony
Dear Colonel,
ReplyDeleteHope the D day is before 27 Jan atleast.In any case I am told by my more learned friends that in all such judgements the interest meter continues to run till the actual payout at standard govt rate.
Best Regards,
Anony
Dear Madam,
ReplyDeleteThe MoD has failed to live up to the letter and spirit of the H'nble Supreme Court's judgement. They have misconstrued words 'wef 1.1.86' to read as 'as on 1.1.86', thus leaving bulk of us cheated of our dues. Can a 'contempt petition' be filed in this regards?
Respected Madam,
ReplyDeleteI must first congratulate to your team and say "Hats Off"!
Today for the first time I understood the mischeaf of the Babus in granting us Rank Pay, and then understood the Ramayana. I feel we must file a 420 case on these Babus after getting our arriers.
Thanks a lot to all who have posted the comments as those also enlightened me.
Ashok M Deswandikar, (IC 17187N Lt. Col. Retd.),