Maj. Gen. (Retd.) S. P. Kapoor

THE demand for One Rank One Pension has gained fresh currency with the announcement of the Sixty Pay Commission Award. The ex-servicemen have been expressing their anguish and demanding that this be accepted forthwith. They have been meeting ministers and senior officers and even presented a memorandum to the President of India.

To understand the issue in its entirety, it is essential that the peculiar as well as steeply hierarchical structure and functioning of the Armed Forces is clearly understood. In the Armed Forces, promotions to next higher ranks don’t come as a matter of routine with a given length of service. These have to be earned by continuous updating of knowledge of the profession and improving efficiency, which is tested through examinations and training courses and only those few, who are found fit, get promoted due to the steep pyramid structure of the Forces. Conferring of higher ranks exponentially expands the responsibility, accountability as well as sphere of activity and influence of the official. For example, whereas a Major is in command of only 120 men of a homogenous unit and has an area of responsibility which may only extend to 1-2 Kms, a Maj. Gen. commands approximately 30,000 men of a heterogeneous force and his area of influence spreads more than a 100 Kms.

Furthermore, whereas the rank of a Major or Lt. Col. is attained without the officer being put through Board Screening, a Colonel, Brig., Maj. Gen. and Lt. Gen. is selected after scrutiny of this service profile by a selection board, at each step, with 40% to 60% promotion mortality rate. Ironically, however, a Lt. Col. with 33 years of service retiring after 1 Jan. 2006 will get higher pension than Maj. Gen. or a Lt. Gen. who had retired prior to 1 Jan 2006 in spite of the fact that he had held 3 to 4 ranks lower than a Lt. Gen./Maj. Gen. Similar is the situation related to Personnel Below Officer’s Rank (PBOR) where a Sepoy retiring today will get higher pension than a Havildar who had retired earlier than 1 Jan 2006.

Revision of pension by earlier pay commissions was being done on the basis of the pay drawn by the serviceman at the time of his retirement. As the pay scales of serving soldiers continued to get revised with each pay commission, the disparity in the pension of persons of same rank as well as vis-à-vis junior ranks became so much that a Sepoy retiring later was almost getting same or better pension than a Junior Commissioned Officer such as a Subedar. The issue was partially addressed by the Fifth Pay Commission which recommended same pension for all pre 1996 retirees of the same rank. These retirees were also given better pension than those persons of junior ranks even though they had retired post 1996. Pension of a retiree of pre 1996 vintage was fixed as half of the revised pay scale of that rank.

As Fifth Pay Commission like all other Pay Commissions, including the Sixth Pay Commission did not have a member from the Defence Force, an anomaly crept in relating to the pension of Maj. Gens. vis-à-vis the Brigadiers because the Brig’s max pay along with his rank pay exceeded the starting pay of a Maj. Gen. which had been fixed at Rs.18,400/-. To set right this anomaly, Maj. Gen. S.P.S. Vains and some other officers approached the Supreme Court. vide its judgment pronounced in Sep. 2008, the Court categorically held that ‘no person of a junior rank can draw better pension than an officer of a higher rank’ and further held that even between the persons of the same rank, there cannot be any differentiation of pension based on their date of retirement as it tantamount to creation of a group within a group which is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution . This, in no uncertain terms, meant grant of ‘One Rank One Pension’.

Even though the Supreme Court had settled the law prior to the announcement of the Sixth Pay Commission Award, yet the government went ahead and fixed different seals of pension for pre 2006 and post 2006 retirees of the same rank. The matter got further complicated as the new pay bands clubbed many ranks varying widely in the volume of work/responsibility, accountability and further by fixing the pension of all the clubbed ranks as half of the starting scale of that band plus rank pay and military service pay. Thus a pre 2006 Lt. Col. retiree had been granted better pension than a Maj. Gen., three rank his senior, because a Maj. Gen. was not in receipt of rank pay.

This goof up qua the pre 2006 retirees only was later cosmetically resolved but ultimately, the pension fixed pre 2006 retiree for Lt. Cols., Cols., Brigs., and Maj. Gens. and Lt. Gens. came to be almost the same with very minor difference. Moreover, the pensions of pre 2006 retirees remained substantially lower than the post 2006 retirees of not only the same rank but also of lower ranks.

Thus, the Sixty Pay Commission by putting together five ranks i.e. Lt. Col. to Lt. Gen., which so widely vary in matters of professional caliber, responsibility, accountability and spheres of activity and influence in one band for the purpose of fixation of pension and totally denying the benefit of revised pay scales granted to post 2006 retirees, has not only been unfair, illogical and contemptuous of the order of the Apex Court but has also classically added insult to the injury of the persons holding senior ranks, be they officers or the PBOR.

As the things stand today, three Chiefs and 33% of Lt. Gens. and equivalent ranks of Navy and IAF are in receipt of One Rank One Pension as they are in a fixed scale of pay without any other rank clubbed with them. The government has also indicated its intension to grant OROP to PBOR but has categorically refused to it for other officers.

The issue is a matter of grave concern to lakhs of ex-servicemen who are seeking the right to live a retired life as per the dignity and status of the rank they once held with unique pride and total dedication with utter disregard to their personal safety and comfort. They even took the extreme step of sending their Gallantry Medals to the President of India, Such sentiments are hardly conducive to motivate the next generation of these Ex-Servicemen to join the Armed Forces and the impact is clearly visible seeing the large shortfall in the cadres of the defence forces.

Fortunately the Govt. has agreed to set up a separate Pay Commission for the Defence Forces. But if all it would come about in 2016. The intervening period is too long to let the injustice continue. This genuine demand should be accepted.

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