Minutes of AGM Held on 22 Dec 2013

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

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      (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.

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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.

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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