Karnataka HC orders issue of notice to Centre on plea on refixation of pension

The High Court of Karnataka has ordered issue of notice to the Ministry of Defence on a PIL plea seeking direction to take immediate steps to refix the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) scheme for ex-servicemen with effect from July 1, 2019.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty passed the order on a petition filed by 65-year-old G.B. Athri, a retired Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force.

The petitioner has also sought a direction to the ministry to implement the recommendation of the one-man judicial committee resolving anomalies in the implementation of the OROP scheme to all those drawing pension as on July 1, 2014. It has been claimed in the petition that around 20 lakh ex-servicemen and four lakh widows were awaiting refixation of the OROP scheme as the cost of living had gone up.

Pointing out that OROP was notified on November 7, 2015, with retrospective effect from July 1, 2014, the petitioner said that as per the feature of pension under OROP, the scheme was required to be refixed once every five years.

The petitioner pointed out that he had submitted a representation to the ministry in September 2019 and in November 2019, and the ministry had informed him that action for revision of pension under OROP had been initiated and a committee was set up on June 14, 2019, to work out out modalities and methodology of implementing the next revision of pension.

It was also claimed in the petition that the ministry had refused to give him a copy of the recommendation of the one-man judicial committee, saying the report was not yet in public domain and was under consideration of an internal committee.

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