The Supreme Court chided the Defence Ministry with regard to One Rank-One Pension (OROP) arrears on Monday, ordering it to withdraw the communication that said the arrears would be paid in four installments. The Defence Ministry issued the communication on January 20.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala said the Ministry "cannot take law on its own hands" by issuing such a communication.
The apex court made the statement while hearing an application filed by Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement which pleaded for setting aside the communication.
When Attorney General R Venkataramani said the Centre has paid one installment of OROP arrears to ex-servicemen but needed more time for further payments, the court said: "First withdraw (your) January 20 notification on payment of OROP arrears, then we will consider your application for time."
The court said the Defence Ministry's communication was "completely contrary to its verdict and it cannot unilaterally say it will pay OROP arrears in four installments."
The court also asked the attorney general to prepare a note giving details of the quantum of payment to be paid, the modalities to be adopted, and what's the priority segment for the payment of arrears. "We want that there has to be some kind of categorisation and older people should be paid the arrears first. Over four lakh pensioners have died since the litigation started," the bench said.
This comes as the Supreme Court in January granted time till March 15 to the Centre for payment of total arrears of OROP. However, on January 20, the ministry issued a communication stating that the arrears shall be paid in four yearly installments.
Following this, the court had pulled up the Defence Ministry over the delay in payment of arrears and sought an explanation for issuing the communication extending the timeline fixed by the court.
