Clear One Rank, One Pension dues of defence pensioners by March 15, SC tells Centre

New Delhi, January 9

The Supreme Court on Monday granted time till March 15 to the Centre to clear the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) to all eligible pensioners of the Defence Forces.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud asked the Centre to ensure that all arrears were paid expeditiously to the pensioners without any further delay.

Attorney General R Venkataramani said the Comptroller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) has already tabulated pensions of 25 lakh pensioners in Defence Forces and it has been sent to the Ministry of Defence for final approval.

“I will personally look into it…By March 15, the money will start flowing into the accounts of 25 lakh pensioners of armed forces,” Venkataramani assured the Bench, which also included Justice PS Narasimha.

The Bench gave liberty to ex-servicemen association to file an application, if they feel aggrieved by any action of the Centre on payment of arrears of the OROP.

The petitioners’ counsel alleged that a large number of pensioners have died waiting for their arrears to be paid.

Last month, the government had sought extension of time till March 15, 2023 for payment of arrears of OROP scheme to all eligible pensioners of the armed forces.

This is the second extension given by the top court to the Central Government to clear the OROP. In June last year it had sought three months to compute and make payments in accordance with the March 16, 2022 verdict of the top court which had asked the Centre to pay the arrears in three months.

The verdict had come on the plea filed by the Indian Ex-servicemen Movement (IESM) through advocate Balaji Srinivasan against the Centre’s formula.

The top court had said in terms of the communication dated November 7, 2015, the benefit of OROP was to be effected from July 1, 2014 and the communication states that “in future, the pension would be re-fixed every five years”.

“Such an exercise has remained to be carried out after the expiry of five years possibly because of the pendency of the present proceedings,” the bench had said, adding, “We accordingly order and direct that in terms of the communication dated November 7, 2015, a re-fixation exercise shall be carried out from July 1, 2019, upon the expiry of five years.