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Thursday, October 30, 2014

CH MAHADEVAN



Dear Mr Gangadharan,

Referring to the instalments 2 & 3 of the posts by AIIPA in PC, I furnish my response as follows:

It is conceded that the Central Government has the powers under Sec 48 to amend the Pension Rules,1995 for LIC Pensioners. But when the LIC Board which had a senior official of the Central Government as nominee as a Director in the Board had approved in its meeting on 24/11/2001, the proposal for removal of DR anomaly, 100% DR neutralization and upgradation of pension for recommending to the Central Government for their approval, the silence of the Central Government on the LIC's recommendation till the time of the Jaipur Single Judge Bench Order dt 12/1/2010 for a period of over 9 years is inexplicable.

When the Sec 48 of LIC Act confers powers on the Central Government to make rules, the powers could very well have been used to reject the Board’s recommendation, which was also not done. On account of this, distress has been caused to aged pensioners many of whom have already exited this world without justice being done to them through removal of anomalies and settlement of dues to them. 

Disparity in pension of the kind that is prevailing in the Corporation today is a clear violation of Articles 14 and 31 of the Constitution of India. Whatever rules are framed either by LIC of India or the Government of India will have to be consistent with and not in violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India. Any anomalies in pension which create discrimination among pensioners
based on different dates of retirement have to be resolved by the LIC and the Central Government by suitable amendments to the rules using the statutory powers vested in them in terms of Sec 48 of the Act.

Even when the appeal of LIC came up before the Division Bench at Jaipur, the Bench took serious note of the delay by the Central Government in taking a decision on the Board recommendation and
dismissed the appeal. Considering that at the various stages in the Jaipur Bench and also at the Delhi High Court and Punjab & Haryana High Courts, the judgments have been delivered in favour of pensioners, in my view, one cannot rule out the possibility of the Supreme Court recognizing the powers under Sec.48 of LIC Act of the Central Government to amend Pension Rules, at the same time directing the Government to use those powers to render justice to the aggrieved pensioners by amending those rules suitably to remove anomalies and disparities currently existing in the pension rules.

I may sound euphoric, but I personally feel that LIC pensioners have reasonable scope for having optimistic expectations on 12th November 2014.

With greetings,
C H Mahadevan