Indian Armed Forces Won Rank Pay Case

[Bhadra]

Dear All,

We finally won, this matter was not merely a case but a mission for us!!!

And our patience and efforts were tried to the extreme... despite the earlier final order of the Supreme Court, the fruits of success kept on all alluding us since the UOI chose to take the most unusual course of persuing a recall application, which was heard on several dates over the last 2 years.

Today, after marathon arguments from morning till rising of the day and several anxious moments of flips and flops, the Judges were finally convinced and saw through the flimsy excuses of the Govt.

It is my priviledge and pleasure to announce that justice finally prevailed, please see the following note for details and circulate to all retired and serving officers and their kin so they can finally get their dues.

Bhati Assiciates - a registered law firm

LANDMARK DAY FOR DEFENCE OFFICERS- RANK PAY CASE



Subject : I.A. NO. 9 IN T.P. (Civil) 56 of 2007 – UOI & Others Versus N.K. Nair & Others.



"¢ The aforesaid matter along with connected matter came up for hearing before the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India before a Bench of Hon'ble Mr. Justice R.M. Lodha, Mr. Justice T.S. Thakur and Mr. Justice Anil R. Dave before Court No.7, Item No. 9 today i.e. 04.09.2012.



"¢ This was an application filed by UOI for modification/directions/recall of order dated 08.03.2010 passed by this Hon'ble Court in T.P. (Civil) No. 56 of 2007 and other writ petitions, by which the Hon'ble Supreme Court had agreed with the reasoning of the Kerala High Court in the case of Major Dhanapalan and directed proper fixation of rank pay from 01.01.1986 and interest @ 6% per annum.



"¢ The core issue in these petitions is with regard to the wrong fixation of rank pay awarded by the Fourth Pay Commission by the Union of India.



"¢ The background to the core issue is that in the fourth pay commission, the element of rank pay was introduced for all ranks from Captain to Brigadier in the Army and their equivalent ranks in the Air Force and Navy, in addition to pay in the integrated scale. The rationale of this was to make the Armed Forces an attractive career option and to continue the edge that was always provided to the defence officers vis-à-vis their civilian counterparts, owing to the difficult and challenging nature of job profile.



"¢ However, at the time of fixation, the rank pay was first deducted to arrive at the total emoluments and thereafter added after fixation in the integrated scale. This ensured that the final fixation of the total pay of the officer became at par with his civilian counterpart and the edge was neutralized during fixation.



"¢ The issue is particularly significant since the services have a longstanding grievance that they get a raw deal from the bureaucrats who have systematically worked on ensuring that the historic edge that the defence officers had with respect to their civilian counterparts is first neutralized and eventually reversed. Interestingly, in this case also the Armed Forces (Army-Navy and Air Force) and the Chiefs of Staff Committee had recommended not to persue the litigation further, however, the Ministry of Defence chose to press the application for recall on several grounds including a total financial liability of about Rs. 1600 crores.



"¢ Major A.K. Dhanapalan was the first officer to challenge this erroneous fixation before the Hon'ble Kerala High Court in O.P. No. 2448/2006. The Hon'ble Single Judge, Kerala High Court vide order dated 05.10.1998 found no justification in deducting the rank pay and directed the UOI to re-fix the pay without deducting the rank pay. The Hon'ble Division Bench of the High Court also affirmed finding of the Ld. Single Judge and dismissed the Writ Appeal No. 518/1999 of UOI vide order dated 04.07.2003. The UOI challenged the dismissal before the Hon'ble Supreme Court which was also dismissed vide order dated 12.07.2005 in SLP (Civil) No. CC-5908/2005.



"¢ Thereafter, several petitions were filed by similarly placed officers before different High Courts and different benches of Armed Forces Tribunal. However, because of the pendency of the aforesaid I.A., the entire issue was in limbo and no benefit had been granted to the deserving officers, apart from the individual case of Major A.K. Dhanapalan.



"¢ Today, the Hon'ble Supreme Court dismissed the Application of Union of India finding no merits or grounds. While doing so, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has also directed the UOI to re-fix the pay of affected officers from 01.01.1986, without deducting the rank pay.



"¢ The Hon'ble Supreme Court has also directed the UOI to pay interest @ 6% p.a. from 01.01.2006 to all the officers, whether or not they have filed any petition before any of the High Courts or Benches of Armed Forces Tribunal, within 12 weeks from today. The Hon'ble Court has also directed that all pending petitions before any of the High Courts or Benches of Armed Forces Tribunal, by similarly placed officers will be governed by this order.



"¢ This order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court will benefit a large number of officers who were in the rank of Captain to Brigadier in the Army and equivalent ranks in the Air Force and Navy, between 01.01.1986 to 01.01.2006.



"¢ The matter was argued by the Ld. Solicitor General for India on behalf of UOI and defended by Mr. Mahabir Singh, Sr. Advocate, Gp Capt Karan Singh Bhati, Advocate-on-record and Ms Aishwarya Bhati, Advocate-on-record on behalf of a large number of individual officers and officers associations.

 

[Bhadra]

Bharat Rakshak • View topic - Indian Army: News and Discussions 15 Apr 2012

 

[Bhadra]

Mod and Admin
Where is the dit button ??

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Edited the title spelling...

 

[Daredevil]

Indian Army wins arrears battle: SC asks Centre to pay Rs. 1,600 crore

New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Government to re-fix the pay scale of Army officers affected by the Fourth Pay Commission which would now entail a payout of Rs.1,600 crore to the exchequer.

The order will benefit a large number of officers who were in the rank of Captain to Brigadier in the army and equivalent ranks in the Air Force and Navy, between January 1, 1986 and January 1,2006, according to counsel Aishwaraya Bhatti, representing the officers.

The apex court also directed the Centre to pay interest at the rate of 6 per cent from January 1, 2006, to all the officers, whether or not they have filed any petition before any of the High Courts or Benches of Armed Forces Tribunal, within 12 weeks from today.

The bench directed that all pending petitions before any of the High Courts or Benches of Armed Forces Tribunal, by similarly-placed officers, will be governed by this order.

A three-judge bench of justices- R M Lodha, T S Thakur and Anil R Dave, passed the order while dismissing an application filed by the Centre for recall and modification of March 8, 2010 order.

By the March, 2010 order, the apex court had agreed with the reasoning of the Kerala High Court in the case of Major Dhanapalan and directed proper fixation of rank pay from January 1,1986 and interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum.

The officers had contended that there was a wrong fixation of rank pay awarded by the Fourth Pay Commission in which the element of rank pay was introduced for all ranks from Captain to Brigadier in the Army and their equivalent ranks in the Air Force and Navy, in addition to pay in the integrated scale.
However, at the time of fixation, the rank pay was first deducted to arrive at the total emoluments and thereafter added after fixation in the integrated scale. This ensured that the final fixation of the total pay of the officer came on a par with his civilian counterpart and the edge was neutralised during fixation.

 

[Ray]

Pay up is the cry.

But will they?

 

[sesha_maruthi27]

Is this Rank pay for officers or for all Ranks?

 

[Bhadra]

Is this Rank pay for officers or for all Ranks?

Rank pay was introduced for the Armed forces in V Pay Commission as the civil side introduced "Integrated Pay Scale" that is Running band. AF objected to it on ground that that there has to be septate pay band for each of the officers rank and there can non be a civilian running band or how will one distinguish between the ranks of officers.

So what the pay commission did was to insist on running pay band say X to W from a Capt to a Brig but fixed the rank pay of each rank and introduced as rank pay as an element which was deducted from the fixed pay just to distinhuish between the ranks of officers. Say I was a Captain and my new pay to be fixed was RS 12000. They said in order to distinguish between the rank Captain and others, I will get Rank Pay of Rs 200. So they deducted Rs 200 from Rs 12000 and fixed basic pay of Rs 11800. Then they declared that the Rank Pay was not to part of basic pay thereby lowering the status of each and every Armed Forces Officers Rank by deducting rank pay or by not including rank pay as part of basic pay.

This became a big problem in inter say fixation of seniority, pay and perks as compared to civilian employees of MoD such as officers on deputation to DRDO, MES and BRO.

This also effected in fixation of the Pay after sixth Pay Commission as rank Pay was not reckoned as part of basic pay which actually was deducted from basic pay in order to distinguish between the ranks of officers, thereby resulting in financial loss to all officers and in lowering their status vis a vis the civilian officers where equation takes pace based on basic pay..

Now the Supreme Court has set it right after a lot of reasoning to MoD which fell of deaf ears.


Also ! a govt fighting against its Armed Forces in Courts ? What an state of sorry affairs ?

Only MoD in India can do that !!

 

[Sunder singh]

is it same one rank one pay system or something else will b have impact on penson