The orders for implementing Hon'ble Supreme Court's judgement in UOI Vs SPS Vains case can be accessed by clicking here. These instructions were issued by the PCDA(P) yesterday in pursuance of the Govt sanction released on 15 July 2009.
The issue was widely covered by the media last year. Interestingly, the PCDA(P) circular suo-moto interprets the order of the Hon'ble SC by stating the following in Para 2 of the implementation circular :
" All retired Major Generals and equivalent in Navy and Air Force who were in receipt of pension as on 1st October 2001 are required to apply to their respective Pension Disbursing Agency for revision of his/her pension in terms of these orders in the prescribed form as per Annexure-I attached with Govt. letter dated 15.07.2009 immediately but latest within one month from the date of issue of the Government letter i.e. by 14.08.2009 positively. Affected pensioners not applying within stipulated time will not be entitled to interest @ 10% per annum for the period by which submission of application beyond the stipulated period is delayed. "
Well, someone should advise the PCDA(P) not to indulge in self-interpretation of court directions even while the Respondents have not yet been discharged from the contempt proceedings. It is the orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court followed by the Presidential sanction letters which have to prevail, and such imposition of a self-initiated suo-moto stipulation is void ab initio. Firstly, How would all affected parties get to know of these GoI / PCDA(P) instructions and the one month condition ? Are they going to inform each and every person or issue a press release ?. Secondly, such riders can never be initiated from the date of issuance of letters, if at all such a rider was conceptualised, it could have only been done from the date of communication to the affected parties. Thirdly, the Hon'ble SC had not imposed any such stipulation and this clearly amounts to interfering in the administration of justice. Fourthly, on 04 May 2009 while hearing the contempt petition, the Hon'ble SC had directed the release of arrears within a period of 3 months, that is, by 03 August 2009, while the authorities concerned have completely vacillated on the issue since the time of the dismissal of the Review Petition filed by UOI in February 2009, they expect our old veterans to complete the formalities now at the speed of the sound. Very unfortunate indeed.
Posted by Navdeep / Maj Navdeep Singh at 7:20 AM 20 comments
Labels: law, Pension
Monday, July 20, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment