Response to Mr Ramesh Dhand-Manipur Pensioners-SC judgment

Response to Mr Ramesh Dhand-Manipur Pensioners-SC judgment

I have some reservations on the views expressed by Mr Ramesh Dhand on the applicability of the SC judgment dated 11/7/2019 .He states that " the judgement relates to state govt pensioners whose pension rules are entirely different from PSUs ".

We must all remember that the Pension Regulations  of PSBs and LIC notified in 1995 were patterned on the CCS Pension Rules 1972 & CCS(Commutation of Pension) Rules 1981.

We must also keep in mind that many State Governments adopted the provisions of the CCS Pension Rules and the Pay Commission Recommendations for their employees even though Pay Commission Recommendations were meant to apply to the Central Government employees only.

Besides, a connection with CCS Pension Rules 1972 has been established  for PSBs' Pension Regulations 1995 & LIC Pension Rules 1995 through Regulation 56/Rule 56 as follows with minor differences:

" 56. Residuary provisions.  (In Public Sector Bank Pension Regulations 1995)

In case of doubt, in the matter of application of these regulations, regard may be had to the corresponding provisions of Central Civil Services Rules, 1972 or Central Civil Services (commutation of Pension) Rules, 1981 applicable for Central Government employees with such exceptions and modifications as the Bank, with the previous sanction of the central Government, may from time to time, determine.  

(Rule 56 of LIC Pension Rules;. Residuary provisions - Matters relating to pension and other benefits in respect of which no express provision has been made in these rules shall be governed by the corresponding provisions contained in the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 or the Central Civil Services (Commutation of Pension) Rules, 1981 applicable for central government employees.)

Note: No previous sanction of the Central government is necessary in case of LIC Pensioners)"

So any judgment of courts relating to CCS Pension Rules of Central Government or any of the State Government's Pension Rules should be considered relevant to the Bank/ LIC pensioners while considered from constitutional perspective.

C H Mahadevan