Sixth Pay Commission to apply on pre-2006 retirees also: CAT

The order will provide relief to thousands of such retired government servants whose pension would increase substantially.

A three-judge bench of CAT headed by its Chairman Justice V K Bali quashed the August 29, 2008 government resolution which amended the recomendations of the sixth pay commission due to which the pre-2006 retirees were getting lower pension than the post 2006 retirees.

The bench passed the orders on a bunch of petitions filed by individuals, their association -- Central Government Pensioners Association -- claiming pension at par with post-2006 retirees on the recommendations of the VI CPC, which took effect from January 1, 2006.

"Respondents (Government) are directed to re-fix the pension of all pre-2006 retirees with effect from January 1, 2006... Let the respondents re-fix the pension and pay the arrears thereof within a period of 3 months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order," the bench, also comprising M L Chauhan and Dr Veena Chhotray, said.

Reacting to the tribunal's order S L Malhotra, a pre-2006 retiree said "thousands and thousands of seniors citizens, who served the government will be benefited by the order and specially those belonging to the poorer section of the society. They are getting what was due to them," he said.

Malhotra said, he has been struggling against the illegal move for three years under the leadership of R S Jain.The retired employees had told the tribunal that by the amendment there cound be a difference of over Rs 25,000, in the pension of a person retiring on January 1, 2006 from one retiring a day before.

The order said it was clear from the commission's recommendations that the revised pension of the pre-2006 retirees "should not be less than 50 per cent of sum of the minimum pay in the pay band and the grade pay thereon corresponding to the pre-revised pay scale held by the pensioner at the time of retirement".

However, the memorandum of Department of Pension ammended a part of the recommendation and the effective revised pension came to be fixed at 50 per cent of the minimum of pay only.

The tribunal observed that the amendment "substantially changed the modified formula adopted by the Central Government pursuant to the recommendations made by the VI CPC and has thus caused great prejudice to applicants.

"According to us, such a course was not available to the functionary of the Government in the garb of clarification thereby altering the recommendations given by the VI CPC, as accepted by the Central Government," it said.