Clear all OROP arrears by March 15, SC tells Centre

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

Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre, submitted before a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha that the tabulation process has been completed by the Comptroller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA).

He said that the tables have been sent to the Ministry of Defence for final approval.

The bench asked the central government to ensure that armed forces pensioners received all arrears expeditiously and there was no further delay.

The AG submitted that by March 15, the money would be deposited into the accounts of 25 lakh pensioners of armed forces.

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The bench allowed an ex-servicemen association to move an application if they have issues in connection with the payment of arrears.

Last month, the central government approached the court seeking extension of time till March 15, 2023 for payment of arrears of OROP scheme to the eligible armed forces pensioners.

In a judgement on March 16, 2022, the top court said OROP scheme is a policy decision and the court finds no constitutional infirmity in the OROP principle as defined by the communication issued by the government on November 7, 2015. “Arrears payable to all eligible pensioners of the armed forces shall be computed and paid over accordingly within a period of three months,” it added.

In June, 2022, the Centre filed a plea seeking time to compute and make payments in accordance with the March verdict, which came on the plea filed advocate Balaji Srinivasan on behalf of Indian Ex Servicemen Movement.