E circular DK 6 dated 30 1 2020

FEDERATION OF RETIRED LIC CLASS I OFFICERS' ASSOCIATIONS           

President :    N.P. Bali 705, Sur, Veena Saaz, Thakur Complex, Kandivali (East), Mumbai - 400 101 Mob : 9820324213 Email Id - npbali@hotmail.com

General Secretary :    D Krishnan No.6/1, Sreshta Riverside Apartments, Wood Creek Road, Nandambakkam, Chennai - 600089 Tel : 9176635967 / 044 42850049. Email Id - dkrishnan1@gmail.com

 

Ecircular No.DK/6                                           30-01-2020

Reg: OUR CASE IN SC ON 5-02-2020

Friends,

The Date 5th Feb. is closing in, and we are preparing, not just the matter on paper, but even for the stiff cold we may need to face in the Capital.   Sri M. Arunachalam and I are slated to leave for Delhi on the 3^rd Feb. by the afternoon flight.  On 4th Feb.  there should be a meeting of all Petitioners, and then of course our meeting with the Senior Counsel Sri Vijay Hansaria too. It will be a last minute brushing up, on matters discussed, more than a year ago, and might not carry anything significantly new, by way of Facts or angles of scrutiny. 

As we have stated a number of times earlier, the Supreme Court has only a small window open for us , where violations of Rules, Laws of the land, or Constitution alone, will be examined. How we project our case to fit these shapes, becomes very important.

We are trying to match our points, against the Counter affidavit of LIC, against our SLP, where they raise critical questions as to whether Article 14 is indeed violated when according to them, a very uniform rule is applied to all Pensioners.  Another Constitutional question raised relates to the worn down Pensions of earlier pensioners, who are unable to maintain themselves under current market realities, and whether indeed Art 21 (Right to Life) is attracted.  The other serious question raised in LIC's Counter is whether we are fair in expecting Revision in Pensions, when there is no provision in the Pension Rules for Revision.  Another point raised in the Counter is how we could compare ourselves with the Central Govt. Employees' Terms and Conditions, when  the Central Govt and LIC are widely separated in the basis for Pension.

If our side establishes some of these important issues as being right and proper, then there is a possibility that the Court may come up with a ruling in our favour. But then, we cannot totally discount the possibility of the Govt., through its own mechanisms in the judicial area, getting the Bench to appreciate the Govt.'s, Problems of a cascading effect, on other similar industries, should it decide, on the Legalities alone. And, as our veteran Leader, Sri G N Sridharan mentioned to me while I had gone there yesterday, to take his Blessings, which he readily gave, the old Policy-stand, of the Central Govt. that seminal, ground-breaking decisions, are first concluded with the Banks, and then only a flow- down to LIC and other similarly placed Financial Institutions, could come in.

We are not unduly worried now of all these complex matters which may have some bearing on the outcomes here, but only proceed with the single-minded approach of doing our best , in placing our points effectively before the Bench. Results are not in our hands, and we should not get involved in thoughts around it, at this stage.

As I had indicated earlier, the Petitioners are now sharing a common platform and ideas and approaches too. So, one or the other Counsel could place our matters effectively in the Court, though , at Counsel levels, there will be no sitting together, due to obvious professional reasons involved. Our sitting together at Petitioner levels has brought in a lot of confidence that we are complementing each other rather than competing. We will have one last meeting of the Petitioners in Delhi on the 4th of Feb before we finally go in for the final assault on the 5th.

So friends, these are the matters I thought I will report to you on the eve of our Delhi journey.  Signing off, until next time.

D.Krishnan.      

Genl. Secy.