Regarding the case of one rank one pension; Pinnacle Court reserves verdict

The Top court today reserves its verdict in a plea mentioning that the government's execution of One Rank One Pension (OROP) for the defence forces has not been correct.

The Bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud finished the hearings on the plea filed by Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, appeared by senior lawyer Huzefa Ahmadi and lawyer Balaji Srinivasan, that one rank one pension has led to the establishment of a different class among the personnel equally situated in length and rank of the force.

One rank one pension means an unvaried pension would be paid to ex-servicemen of the equal rank with the equal length of service, regardless of their date of retirement from the service.

The petitioners had also summoned that the government’s take on that levelling of retirement pension would happen occasionally every five years. 

The Petitioners also questioned that a gap of five years would leave them at a great drawback. 

Petitioners further strongly mentioned that occasional levelling would “cause great stress to twenty four lakh ex-servicemen, 6.5 lakh war widows and veteran widows and their entire families by bringing a situation of One Rank and Different Pension”.

Raising the issue on yearly increment, the petitioner told the bench that the Union has been changing directions.

The court said that they were going to decide the validity of the policy by taking on broad principles kept by the petitioner without deciding the actual rollout.