OROP: Re-fixation from July 2019 and pay arrears within three months - SC

The Supreme Court decided on Wednesday that a re-fixation exercise as per One Rank, One Pension (OROP) for defence forces be conducted out from July 1, 2019, upon the expiration of five years, and arrears payable to all qualified armed forces pensions be computed and handed over within three months.

The court noted that the 2015 communication on OROP states that “in future, the pension would be re-fixed every five years” and said such an exercise has remained to be carried out after the expiry of five years possibly because of the pendency of the present proceedings”.

A three-judge bench led by Justice D Y Chandrachud looked into the "principles governing pensions and cut-off dates" and found that "there is no legal mandate that pensioners of the same rank must be given the same amount of pension" and that "the varying benefits that may be applicable to certain personnel and impact the pension payable need not be equalised with the rest of the personnel."Applying the “principles to the facts of the case”, the bench, also comprising Justice Surya Kant and Vikram Nath, said: “We find no constitutional infirmity in the OROP principle as defined by the communication dated 7 November 2015…” to the three service chiefs.

The Supreme Court upheld the central government’s decision on One Rank, One Pension (OROP) for defence forces and said that it does not find any constitutional infirmity in the manner in which it is being implemented.

The petitioners had disputed the November 7, 2015 letter, claiming that the OROP concept had been replaced by 'one rank multiple pensions' for people with the same length of service throughout implementation. They claimed that the original meaning of the OROP had been changed, and that instead of an automatic adjustment of the rates of pension, which would pass on any future increases to past pensioners, the revision would now take place at periodic intervals. They claimed that deviating from automatic revision is arbitrary and unlawful under the Constitution's Articles 14 and 21.Rejecting the argument, the court held that “OROP definition is not arbitrary”. The court said that the definition of the OROP is uniformly applicable to all pensioners irrespective of the date of retirement.

The cut-off date, the judgement said, is used only to determine the base salary for the calculation of pension. “While for those who retired after 2014, the last drawn salary is used to calculate pension, for those who retired prior to 2013, the average salary drawn in 2013 is used”.

The Union government had taken a policy decision to enhance the base salary for the calculation of pension “since the uniform application of the last drawn salary for the purpose of calculating pension would put the prior retirees at a disadvantage”, said the court.

“Undoubtedly, the Union government had a range of policy choices including taking the minimum, the maximum or the mean or average” but “decided to adopt the average. Persons below the average were brought up to the average mark while those drawing above the average were protected,” the ruling said adding “such a decision lies within the ambit of policy choices”.

Read: One Rank One Pension – Supreme Court Judgement dated 16.03.2022