Advisory: Rank Pay of Officers court case in progress

Dear Friends,
Jai Hind.
Some unscrupulous lawyers in Chandigarh and other cities are trying to mislead retired Defence Officers regarding the Rank Pay Case, the 4th Pay Commission anomaly case. The sad part is that some of these lawyers are ESM or they are being helped by ESM to rope in innocent retired officers to file individual cases for their Rank Pay dues. Inspite detailed information on the subject being disseminated by "REPORT MY SIGNAL" and latest updates being given by ESM websites and ESM Groups, retired officers are falling prey to dirty tricks of such lawyers. The aim of this email is to save innocent retired Defence officers from such traps.

In 2007, a few dedicated retired officers, created a new organisation “Retired Defence Officers Association”. It is a registered organisation.
Please visit the website click here for more details.

The organisation RDOA was created with the sole aim of fighting against the deliberate injustice done by MoD regarding the Rank Pay after the 4th CPC report was submitted. The RDOA has also been attending to many other ESM welfare related jobs, and has been doing a commendable job. 4th CPC Report introduced Rank Pay for officers for the first time in pay structure of Defence Services.

As per the 4th CPC Report, the Rank Pay was over and above the salary fixed for officers. Some clever Babus deliberately manipulated the figures, deducted the Rank Pay from the salary fixed, thus reducing the salary fixed and then adding the amount granted as Rank Pay. Net result was that the legitimate additional Rank Pay amount was denied to the officers. It was probably done to ensure that Defence Services officers remain lower in status to their ‘equivalents’ in IAS and other Central Services. The story did not end there.

Since the total pay of officers was cleverly lowered at the time of 4th CPC, it also affected the basic salary fixation of 5th CPC and 6th CPC. You are requested to read the email received from RDOA, appended below. Kindly have the gist of this post circulated among all the officers, who do not use computers to keep themselves updated.
In service of Indian Military Veterans
Chander Kamboj.

From: RDOA India
Sent: 18 August 2010 07:55
Subject: AN ADVISORY: IV PAY COMMISSION RANK PAY ANOMALY CASE
Dear Veterans,
Following for your info- Short Brief of Case (Rank Pay Anomaly of 4th CPC, due to deliberate incorrect implementation by MoD) so far.

Vide order dated 8.3.2010, the Hon’ble Supreme Court was pleased to pass final orders in the T.P. (Civil) No. 56 of 2007 and after transferring, the Writ Petitions pending before the High Courts of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Allahabad were allowed and W.P. (Civil) Nos. 96 of 2009 and 34 of 2009 pending before the Hon’ble Court were also allowed. The Hon’ble Court also allowed the application for intervention in T.P. (Civil) No. 56 of 2007.

After hearing detailed arguments, the Hon’ble Court agreed with the judgment dated 5.10.1998 passed by the learned Single Judge of the Kerala High Court in O.P. No. 2448 of 1996 and the order dated 4.7.2003 passed by the Hon’ble Division Bench of the Kerala High Court in W.A. No. 518 of 1999 and while upholding the aforesaid judgments and reasoning, directed to pay the rank pay to officers of the Armed Forces retrospectively with effect from 1.1.1986 and also directed to pay 6% interest p.a. accordingly.

Against the aforesaid order dated 8.3.2010, Union of India, the Applicant, has filed an interlocutory application (I.A.) for directions seeking modifications/ directions/recall of order dated 8.3.2010. As advised by our counsel no such provision exists in the Supreme Court to file an IA. In response to this, the RDOA has filed a detailed and comprehensive counter affidavit in the apex court. As per directions of the court UOI will be given four weeks time to file
rejoinder before the case gets listed for disposal.

Off late there have been instances wherein officers who are ill informed about the case have been floating papers/ writing to corridors of power/ seeking to go to the Supreme Court to vacate the appeal filed by the UOI. Such hasty and half cooked actions will only complicate matters and lead to further delays. RDOA wants to assure all veterans that thorough research has been done on the case before resorting to litigation. Chances of the case floundering are remote, but if people file litigations in their exuberance on the subject matters the case may go on a tangent and result in loss of benefits.

It is therefore requested that all veterans should refrain from writing/ going in for litigation on any issue/ point related to the IV Pay Commission rank pay anomaly case. Your cooperation is highly solicited. There are no brownie points to be scored. This mail is being circulated to protect the interests of officers so that they do not fall prey to vested interests out to make a quick buck.
Thanking you
Secy RDOA
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