Supreme Court asks Centre to pay arrears under OROP till March 15

Work of tabulating 2.5 million pensioners completed, attorney general tells court

The Supreme Court on Monday gave the central government time till March 15 to pay arrears under the One Rank-One Pension (OROP) to all eligible pensioners of the armed forces.

A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha gave a second extension for the payment after the Centre in June sought an extension of three months.

Under the OROP scheme, all retired military personnel of the same rank and the same duration of service are paid the same pension, irrespective of when they retire.

The court asked the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, a group representing retired defence officials, to appeal if it feels aggrieved by any government action on payment of arrears.

Attorney General R Venkataramani, who appeared for the Centre, told the court that there are 2.5 million pensioners and the Comptroller General of Defence Accounts has finished processing tabulating data on them. The information has been forwarded to the Ministry of Defence for approval, he added.

He assured the court that the money will start flowing into the accounts of these pensioners by March 15.

The Union Cabinet revised the pension of armed forces pensioners and family pensioners under OROP with effect from July 1, 2019. The Ministry of Defence said the pension of the past pensioners would be re-fixed based on the average minimum and maximum pension of Defence Forces retirees of the calendar year 2018 in the same rank with the same length of service.

Under the scheme, the armed forces personnel who retired by June 30, 2019 [excluding pre-mature (PMR) retired, with effect from July 01, 2014] will be covered under this revision.

The Ministry said the revision of the pensions paid to retired defence personnel and their families under OROP will result in an annual additional expenditure of Rs 8,450 crore and arrears of Rs 23,638 crore will be paid to pensioners from July 2019 to June 2022.

(With inputs from PTI)