Opposing the revision of One Rank One Pension’ scheme for ex-servicemen, the government on Friday cleared its stand in the Supreme Court saying that any interference in the scheme will lead to financial implication. In its reply to the Supreme Court on Friday, the government said there will be no change in the OROP policy and the decision regarding the same has already been taken. “No change in the OROP Policy. Any changes in the scheme will lead to financial implications”, the government said.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and C. Nagappan issued notice and sought the response from the government in eight weeks. The Supreme Court, earlier this month, had sought the Centre’s response on a plea to implement OROP as recommended by the Koshyari Committee. The plea demanded an automatic annual revision, instead of the current policy of periodic review once in five years.
Earlier this month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that annual revision in pensions does not happen anywhere in the world. Underlining that the government will safeguard interests of soldiers retiring at an early age through higher pensions, he said the government was committed to OROP but the “only difficulty” is the “arithmetical translation”.
The Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) and others have challenged the government’s policy of periodic pension review once in five years. According to a report by PTI, such an approach has been accused of diluting the 26 February 2014 announcement by which the revision in pension was to automatically pass on to past pensioners annually.
