In a contempt petition that has been filed before the Supreme Court by Major General SPS Vains, on 8 July 2015, the Supreme Court gave the Government of India 6 weeks’ more time to report back on implementation of the One Rank One Pension (OROP) principle for the ex-servicemen. The contempt Petition has been filed for the enforcement of the 2008 Supreme Court judgment.
The Supreme Court has listed the case after 6 weeks on a request made by ASG Pinki Anand, as she asked time for the government to make arrangements to do the needful. The next date in this case is 24 August 2015. On a previous date, the Supreme Court had held that the Government should be fulfilling its promises that it had made in their manifesto [read: What is One Rank One Pension (OROP) and why it is necessary under law.].
This appears to be the last opportunity given to the government, else contempt proceedings may be initiated against the Government. The last date of the case was 3 months ago wherein the Supreme Court had given a last extension to the government for implementing the said judgment. It is less likely that on the next date the Supreme Court would give further time to the Government for the implementation of the judgment.
“One Rank, One Pension” rule basically implies that retired soldiers of the same rank with the same length of service will be entitled to get the same amount of pension, irrespective of the date or year of their retirement. Simply put, it means if someone has retired from the Army from a particular rank having rendered a particular number of years’ service, then he will get the same pension that is paid to another person who subsequently retires from the same rank with the same number of years’ service. For example, if a sepoy (i.e., jawan or sipahi) retired in 1990 after rendering service for 15 years, he must get the same pension as is given to a sepoy retiring in 2014 after rendering the same service for 15 years.
Read our previous article on One Rank One Pension and why is it necessary under the law, here. The original order of the Supreme Court in the case of Union of India v. SPS Vains, (2008) 9 SCC 125, can be seen here.
Recently, on 9th July, 2015, the Defense Minister Mr. Manohar Parrikar had stated that soon, there will be Good News on the One Rank One Pension issue. Well, it seems to be a political move as Government had anticipated the hearing in the Supreme Court in less than a week’s time and if at all the Supreme Court issues contempt notice or forces the Government to implement the One Rank One Pension principle, the government could not have taken credit for the implementation and it would be seen as if it was because of the Supreme Court orders that the Government has had to implement the said principle.
