RETIRED
DEFENCE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION (RDOA)
MINUTES
OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL BODY MEETING HELD ON 22 DEC 2013 AT DSOI DHAULA KUAN NEW
DELHI AT 1130 HRS
1. The Annual General Body Meeting of the
‘Retired Defence Officers Association’ (RDOA) was held on 22 Dec 2013 at 1130
Hrs at DSOI Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi. The meeting was attended by 55 officers.
AGENDA
POINT NO 1
Welcome
address by the President RDOA: Lt Col BK Sharma.
2. Lt Col BK Sharma (Retd), President of
RDOA, welcomed all the members to the Fourth
AGM of RDOA. He gave an overview of
the important issues taken up by RDOA to include presentation of OROP to the
Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Mr Hoshiar Singh Koshiary, Broad
banding of Disability Pension, Non Functional
Financial Upgradation (NFFU),
Wrong fixation of pension of widows, Pension anomaly case of Majors and its equivalent etc.
3. The
President informed the members that the instructions issued by MoD vide its
letter of 27 Dec 12 to implement the Hon’ble Supreme Court order of 04 Sept
2012 did not meet the directives of the Court in letter and spirit and created
further anomalies, / infirmities,
resulting in a situation where in RDOA had to file ‘Contempt Petition’ in
the apex court for non compliance of its orders by MoD. The Contempt Notice
issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court was read out for information of the members
in which it has been stated that all the contemnors viz, Defence Secretary,
Secy Defence Finanace, Secy Expenditure and Controller General of Defence
Accounts (CGDA) will appear in person till such time the case gets resolved.
4. The
President informed the members that a delegation of RDOA had met Air Chief
Marshal NAK Browne in his office in his capacity as Chairman Chiefs of Staff
Committee to express ‘Solidarity’ and to thank him for his unflinching support
and persuasion in resolving the infirmities in the IV CPC Rank pay case with
the MoD.
5. The President then read out the names of
officers who had contributed Rs 5000/- and more to the RDOA corpus fund.
6. The
President informed the members that the
governing body of RDOA had decided that
all information will be
put on the RDOA blogspot/website and as such, the officers who did
not have access to email/net
facilities to be in touch with those having
the same or visit Cyber Cafe
to get the latest. He requested
officers to motivate other officers to join the association so that RDOA grows from
strength to strength and is able to handle more cases affecting the officers.
7. The President emphasized once again in
informing members that not even a single penny has been expended by any of the
office bearers on transport, telephones, internet and secretarial support from Associations fund which speaks of high
credibility and dedication of the team.
8. The President then requested the
Secretary Lt Col Satwant Singh to proceed with the remaining agenda points.
AGENDA
POINT NO 2.
Progress
on IV CPC Rank Pay Case and Contempt Petition.
9. The
Secretary, Lt Col Satwant Singh, then informed the members that the
instructions issued by MoD to implement the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court
of 04 Sept 12 fell short of the Court’s directive and has led to a situation
that it became necessary for RDOA to file ‘Contempt Petition’ in the apex court
for will full defiance and non compliance/implementation of the Court’s order.
10. The
Secretary then explained the infirmities so created by MoD which are as given.
(a) Non
compliance of the Hon’ble Supreme Court orders within the stipulated time
limit of 31 May 2013.
(b) Limiting
the scope of the Supreme Court order dated 04 Sept 2012 by changing the
text of the order to read ‘as on 1/1/86’ instead of ‘with effect from 1/1/86’
thereby excluding benefit to all those officers who joined or were promoted to
the rank of Captain and higher ranks on any day after 1/1/86.
(c) The
minimum initial pay for each rank as per para 6 (a) (ii) of SAI 1/S/87 has not been changed. The table given
in this para specifies minimum initial pay for each rank from Capt to Brig
which was also arrived at after deducting an amount equal to rank pay for each
rank. Since the deduction step has been removed by the apex court, so
therefore, the minimum initial pay for each rank needs to be corrected too.
(d) Amendment
of top of the integrated scale 2300-100-3900-150-4200-EB-150-5100.
Officers in the rank of Brig have been fixed
at 4950/- after deduction of rank pay. Such officers were already drawing more
pay than 4950 on 1/1/86. They have not only been denied the fitment weightage
of 20% as per the fixation formula but have also stagnated at 5100/- itself.
Even stagnation increments to be absorbed as personal pay are not admissible to
such officers as per instructions issued since these have not been amended.
(e) Revision
of pension of pre 1986 retiree officers.
(f) Applicability
of the judgment to subsequent V CPC and VI CPC
The
admitted position of MoD before the Hon’ble Supreme Court both during arguments
as well as in Affidavits was that; the implementation of the orders of the
Hon’ble Court of Kerela would have a cascading effect on subsequent pay
commissions as it would involve refixation of pay of officers subsequently as
on 1/1/96 and 1/1/2006 during the V and VI CPC.
It
is clear from the records that the methodology followed to implement the
recommendations of V CPC is exactly the same as that of IV CPC where in rank
pay has been deducted both at the fixation of initial pay scales as well as
calculation of emoluments after implementing the recommendations.
(g) Payment
of rank pay to Substantive Lt Col (TS)
Rank
pay as defined by IV CPC is payable either in acting or substantive capacity
appropriate to the rank held by the officer in addition to the pay in the
revised scale. The rank of Lt Col (TS) is a substantive rank given to officers
on completion of 21 yrs of reckonable service and such offrs are therefore
entitled to rank pay of Lt Col which has not been covered by the implementation
order of MoD dated 27 Dec 2012.
AGENDA POINT NO 3
11. OTHER
ISSUES TAKEN UP BY RDOA AND PROGRESS THERE OF
The
Secretary briefed the members on the current status of the ongoing cases in
which RDOA had filed intervention application thereby becoming party to the
case and the cases which RDOA will take up for the benefit of the veterans.
(a) Broadbanding
of Disability Pension.
In the
case of UOI v/s Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi, AFT Chandigarh
had given judgment in favour of the petitioner saying that a person
superannuating was entitled to broad
banding of disability pension. Lt Gen V Oberoi retired with 70% disability and as per the judgment was entitled
to get 75% disability after rounding off. UOI has filed SLP in the Supreme Court. No date of
hearing has been notified. As and when it is known, information will be put on the blogspot for information of all
concerned.
(b) Minimum
Guaranteed Pension (Major’s Pension )
In the case of Major Avtar Singh v/s UOI, minimum guaranteed pension for
Major’s was made applicable from 24 Sept 2012 as per the notification issued by the GOI. AFT Delhi had ruled
that the pension should be paid from 1/1/2006.
UOI has filed SLP in the Supreme Court. The next date of hearing is scheduled
for 07 Feb 2014.
(c) Admissibility
of Disability Pension Due to ‘Neither Attributed to Nor Aggravated (NANA)
by Military Service.
In a recent judgment the Supreme Court had said
that if a person at the time of
joining service was in sound bodily health and no record of any disability was recorded in his service documents, then
such a person was entitled to disability pension if 20% or more disability was recorded at the time
of retirement even if not attributed/aggravated by service.
Based on
this judgment RDOA had requested such affected officers to write to CDA Pension
and claim disability pension. As
is known, MoD is not accepting such cases on the plea that the judgment is applicable to the individual case
only in whose favour it was issued. Therefore RDOA
intends to take up this case with the Dept of Ex Serviceman Welfare and
thereafter file PIL in the Supreme
Court to obtain relief for all affected officers and other ranks
.
(d) Rationalisation
of Pension of Majors/Lt Col (TS)/Select post AVS Report Implementation.
Consequent to implementation of AVS Report with cutoff date of 16 Dec 2004, officers who were Lt Col (TS)/Select
with 26 yrs of service and had the advantage of age were promoted to the rank of Col overnight and were
drawing the pay and pension of Col. Officers
who did not have the age advantage were drawing the pension of Lt Col even
though having more than 26 yrs
service. This was gross injustice to such officers resulting in the division of a homogeneous group of
veterans.
The AVS
Report also affected the rank of Major very badly. The report reduced the
qualifying service to become Major from
the existing 10 yrs to 6 yrs as a result of which the pension of Majors got drastically reduced to Rs
10000/- which was corrected to the minimum guaranteed pension of Rs 14 205/-. Majors who had put in more than 13
yrs of commissioned service and were
not able to pick up the rank of Lt Col (TS) due to having less than 20 yrs
service were deprived of the
Pensionary benefit.
RDOA will
file case in the Supreme Court /AFT Delhi to correct this anomaly so that
Majors who had put in 13 yrs of
commissioned service should be given pension of Lt Col as that is the rank attainable by all officers now and also
to enhance the pension of Lt Col (TS)/ Select to that of Col (TS) provided the officer had rendered 26 yrs of
commissioned service as is admissible now.
AGENDA POINT NO 4
12. POINTS FOR 7CPC:
The Secretary
informed the members that a preliminary meeting was held with the Service HQ Pay Cell on the 7 CPC. It was beyond
the scope and time of this AGM to
discuss the modalities of 7 CPC,
however it was conveyed that the basis for working
out pay scales for 7 CPC should be based on the assumption that the infirmities
in the implementation of the IV CPC rank
pay case would be resolved and all outstanding anomalies
from previous pay commissioned would be sorted out before firming up scales for
7 CPC.
AGENDA
POINT NO 5
13. Confirmation of Minutes of the AGM held on 17
Jun 2012
The salient points of the meeting of the AGM held on
17 Jun 2012 were read out to the members. There being no observation the
minutes were deemed to be passed duly proposed by Cmde AK Dhir and seconded by Brig V Raheja.
.
AGENDA
POINT NO 6
14. Presentation of Accounts for the period Apr
2012 to March 2013
The statement of accounts for the period Apr 2012 to
March 2013 was presented to the members. This was also given as a handout to
all the members. There being no observations, the accounts for the period Apr
2012 to March 2013 were passed being proposed by Col M Sharma and seconded by Brig VK Mahajan.
AGENDA
POINT NO 7
15. Points from members
Issues / doubts from members relating to the IV CPC
Rank pay case were clarified by Gp Capt KS Bhati, Advocate on Records in the
Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and handling all legal cases pertaining to RDOA.
Lt Col Raghubir Singh raised the issue of extension
of age by two yrs in the case of RCO commissioned officers whereby they have
got deprived of pension of Lt Col if that was done. The Secretary assured that the matter would
be looked into and taken up with appropriate authorities.
.
AGENDA
POINT NO 8.
16. Vote of Thanks.
There
being no other point, the meeting was closed with a vote of thanks by the
Secretary. This was followed by lunch with the members.
SECY RDOA
