Pension Parity Witout Regard To date Of Retirement

There is an apprehension in the minds of the government of India pensioners of pre 1996 origin with the implementation of the VI Pay Commission Recommendations through the Office Memorandum No. 38/37/08-PNPW (A) dt. 01.09.2008 that they are being shortchanged in the matter of existing scheme of "near" parity in in relation to present employees.

The Government Of India is very well aware that the VIth Central Pay Commission recommended the pension fitment scheme by addition of 40 \% of basic pension on 1.1.2006 to the Pension Plus Dearness Pension Plus Dearness Relief that the pensioner was getting on that date. In other words, the working formula consisted of multiplying the basic pension by 2.26 and treat this as consolidated pension as on 1.1.2006. This matched with the scheme for serving personnel, which required adding of grade pay to his pay in the relevant Pay Band pertaining to his scale of pay. To maintain near parity of pensioners retired before 1.1.2006 with person belonging to the same scale of pay and going to retire after 1.1.2006, a further recommendation was made that the pension fixed for earlier pensioners will not be less than at least minimum pension of subsequent retiree. The government issued formal orders accepting the scheme vide O.M. quoted above laying down normal fitment under Para 4.1 and protection of pension under Para 4.2 of the said O.M.
In this context it would be appropriate to recall that the Vth CPC in order to remove grave disparity between pre86 and pre96 retirees first brought them on par on one pay scale. In the second step these were brought on the near parity with post 96 retirees by giving them 50 \% of minimum of pay scale so that they get nearly the same pension. The point to be stressed is that all pre96 retirees were brought on same pay scale at minimum level irrespective of what pay scale they FACTUALLY held.
This has assumed importance because Govt. O.M. No. 38/37/08-PNPW (A) dt. 01.09.2008 states in Para 4.2 that the pension fixed in Para 4.1 would not be less than 50\% of pay and grade pay of the employee in the same scale of pay from which the pensioner retired. However, if the term in the same scale of pay from which the pensioner retired is sought to be interpreted narrowly and in a restricted manner that such benefit would accrue only to those who FACTUALLY held the posts in Scales S -1 to S34 it would mean that the government has withdrawn the scheme of near parity conferred on pensioners so far.

Explaining further, if the notification is restricted to 50 \% of the scale of pay the retiree FACTUALLY held earlier the purpose of the previous act of the government to bring pre 86 and pre 96 retirees on same pay scale will be defeated. The fact of the matter is that the pre 96 and pre 86 pensioners got their Basic Pension Fixed as on 1.1.1996 based on the minimum of the replacement scale for the post from which they retired. That means that the government had conferred on them the post Vth Pay Commission revised pay scales as implemented with effect from 1.1.96 although they may not have FACTUALLY held the posts in the post 1996 pay scales. . This was the basic pension until 1.1.2006 under normal circumstances and therefore It will lead to an absurd situation since corresponding pay scales of pre86 and pre96 retirees had no FACTUAL relation at all; nor had they any FACTUAL relation with post96 corresponding scale. Therefore the attempt to restrict the protection to 50 \% of the pay scale FACTUALY held will be totally meaningless . The obvious step is to treat pre86 and pre96 pensioners on par with post 96 retirees on corresponding scale of pay. The above case makes the whole scheme of past meaningful as bringing the parity among retirees of previous years.
It is therefore considered that denial of protection to pre86 and pre96 retirees merely on the ground of not FACTUALLY holding the scale of pay will be discriminatory on the basis of date of retirement and grossly unethical.
In order to remove the misgivings of all pensioners who retired before 1.1.1996, once and for all it is requested that the government may please issue clear directives to the Pension Disbursing Authorities to afford protection under Para 4.2 of the OM to all of them i.e., 50 per cent of the minimum of the replacement scale regardless of their retirement date.