Wednesday, January 26, 2011

UPDATION OF PENSION AS PER WAGE REVISION!

RAJASTHAN HIGH COURT'S VERDICT ON 
UPDATION OF  PENSION TO LIC EMPLOYEES!
JAIPUR:

The Rajasthan High Court has come down heavily on the inaction of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) for not adhering to its board resolution to pay equal pension to all the retirees across the country irrespective of their date of retirement. The court verdict is bound to affect thousands of retired personnel of LIC in the country. 


A division bench comprising Justice Dalip Singh and Justice Mahesh Bhagwati directed the LIC to give effect to its board decision dated November 24, 2001 to revise the pension and dearness allowance ( DA) payable to its retired employees corresponding to the successive revisions of the pay scales that took place in 1986, 1993, 1997, 2002 and 2007 respectively. 

Presently, the retired employees of LIC are drawing pension based on the last pay which was payable to them at the time of their retirement and the same were never revised creating different classes of employees based on their date of retirement. This was challenged by Krishan Murarilal Asthana, general secretary of Retired Insurance Employees' Association of LIC. The LIC board, infact, took the decision to do away the disparity among pensioners but did not implement the same on the ground that the ministry of finance has not given its approval. 



Disposing off the writ petition filed by Asthana, a single judge bench of Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari in its order dated January 12, 2010 had asked LIC to take immediate steps to implement the resolution of LIC board and held, "In the present matter, there was no reason to seek approval of the Central government. The law in this regard is settled and even counsel for union of India had accepted that it is only a policy decision, that too, involving public interest and not every decision of the board, which needs approval by the central government." Feeling aggrieved of this order, the LIC filed an appeal before the division bench. 

The division bench took a serious note of the conduct of LIC in not adhering to its board resolution on one or the other account. Justice Dalip Singh observed, "The LIC is making an eyewash by not falling in line with its own board decision and it is an extreme ridiculous situation that the corporation itself has filed an appeal now saying that the order of the single judge is not tenable whereas the LIC still maintains that the board resolution has not been rescinded and the corporation is not challenging its own board's resolution." 

"LIC is making a sheer misuse of the judicial system by filing frivolous appeal and trying to dislodge the retired pensioners from their valid right merely on the ground that the resolution was never approved by the ministry of finance. Such a ground is not maintainable when the Government of India has never filed an appeal against the order of single judge as also the LIC is an autonomous statutory body which need not depend on the government for its day-to-day functioning. Hence the appeal is not maintainable," observed Justice Mahesh Bhagwati. 


The Times of India: 25.01.2011

WHEN  RETIRED BANK EMPLOYEES WILL GET UPDATED PENSION?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I retired from Union Bank of India in Aug 2001. I was a pension optee and am drawing since then. I would like to know as to whether any such petition from the bank pensioners side has been filed in any of the High Courts or in Supreme Court. What is the present position of the case, if it is filed? On my behalf, I made a detailed representation to the Bank & also to the Finance Ministry in this regard way back in 2006. I got a reply from the bank stating that the pension was a contributory nature and, therefore, the updation as upheld in the Nakara's case (SC judgement) did not apply to the persons like me. The Ministry coolly replies stating that the bank would respond to my queries. The fact remains that the pension was not a contributory pension as has been the case with all Central Government pensioners from 2004. Anyway, I tried from my side by approaching the bank & the Ministry and I failed. Therefore, I am asking this query in the light of LIC judgement.

Unknown said...

Bank employees pension scheme is not a contributory pension scheme. A contributory pension scheme has been introduced from 01.04.2010
applicable to persons joining afyer 01.04.2010.
Our scheme is similar to LIC.
Yhere two long pending demands of Bank pensioners.
100% DA Neutralisation and Pension Updation.
Apart from LIC case, recently in SBI case DElhi
High Court has also directed that discrimination is not permitted among pensioners and directed it to extend 100% DA neutralisation to all.
Mr.Pradeep Kumar advocate amd ex-officer of Bank of India has filed a csae in Suptreme court on above issues which is coming for final disposal on 7.03.2011.
You may join Googlegroups/bankoensioner so that you will get latest developments to your email and also get to participate in discussions.

LALIT C JANI said...

Since the inception of Pension Scheme in the Nationalised Banks, No updation/revison of pension has ever been made. It is almost more than 15 years have passed, Banks have not revised the pension of its employees inspite of wage revisions awarded to the working employees. The pension amount has lost relevance to in terms of the reduced purchasing power inview of the glaring dearness. It is against natural justice that though the pension sheme in the banks are on the same lines as that of Govt. of India, but there is no revison or updation. Justice must prevail.

rajesh joshi said...

yes I strongly agreewith the opinion of mr. Lalit the Union Leaders must request to court of Law and justify the pension formula accepted by central government, and and also request to hon. court that when pension revision is done for Central government,state govt.,Defence persnls.,and some PSU retirees, why the pension revision is denied to Bank Retirees, denying Pension revision to Bank retiree is unhuman and against natural justice

Anonymous said...

I was retired from allahabad bank in 1996. banks pension scheme should as for centra Govt. employees union leaders should take up thismater at the time of wage revison.