THE FUTURE AHEAD - OUR COURSE OF ACTION... CIRCULAR FROM D.KRISHBNAN G.S.

E CIRCULAR DK-40                                                                  14th September 2018    Friends, THE FUTURE AHEAD – OUR COURSE OF ACTION As we are now going through the all-important  collection drive, I thought it would be appropriate to emphasize on a few things  for the general understanding of our members, who may carry doubts about our future course of action, and what is left of it, after this stage. 1.  Though we are accepting what is being paid out by the LIC now,  the Delhi High Court Order , which is the basis for this pay out , has not been  complied with correctly by the LIC. 2. The base year for Arrears to be calculated from, should have been Dec 1998, the year of the First Petition filed, regarding anomaly in DR rates; unfortunately this has been erroneously taken from the year 2007, which was our Federation's Petition, which happened to be the next one. 3. The DHC order very specifically mentions that the Interim Relief paid earlier is not to be recovered. This again has been flouted quite brazenly by the LIC. 4. For Pre-1993 Retirees, the rate at which the DR arrears is reckoned is at 0.23% instead of 0.29% which is as per the DHC order. 5. In point of fact, we were never satisfied with even the DHC order itself, and that is why we went to SC with our Special leave Petition. In other words, even if LIC's implementation of the DHC order now, were to be defect- free, it was not meeting our legitimate aspirations, which has more to do with rule 3A and its constitutional  validity, and which was not directly decided upon by the DHC as the SC had mandated. The DHC judgment  denied our main Demand on Revision of Pension,  which was mainly to retain the original value of our Pension, and comparative position  vis-a-vis the pension of later Retirees. It is actually this principle of 'Parity' that influenced repeated Pay Commissions to recommend for adjustments in Pensions, every time there was a Revision for the serving  Govt employees. 6. Even this half-hearted compliance to the DHC Order of April 2017, had to be forced on the LIC through vehement pleadings by our Senior Counsel both on the 26th and 30th of July 2018, in the Supreme Court. It was only after a written Order was passed by the SC setting a two-month deadline, for implementing the DHC order, that the LIC has finally come down into this present state of half-hearted compliance , flouting most of the Directions by deliberate misinterpretation. The unfortunate result is, we now have lost Trust with our own long- served Organisation, and are looking for the Courts to give us justice! 7. In essence, therefore , we are looking at the next stage, in our litigation, to be continued in the SC, with all the main points in the SLP, to be  taken up with full vigour. The implementation of DHC order in this piecemeal  manner will also be brought to the notice of the Court through appropriate measures. Our Legal Committee is scheduled to meet ahead of the next Date of Hearing which is fixed for Oct 11th, to decide on the focus of strategies, and we will keep you posted of developments as and when they happen.  With Best Wishes  D.Krishnan.                                                                                                                                        General Secretary