'One Rank One Pension' Explained: SC Gives Centre Till March to Clear Arrears

The Centre has said that it's in the process of vetting pensioner data before sending it to the Defence Ministry.

Men of the Indian army marching down.

(Photo: iStock)

A Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha directed the centre to pay pension arrears to eligible pensioners of the Indian armed forces, under the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme, by 15 March 2023.

What does the order say? The order, which came on Monday, 9 January, directed the Central Government to comply with the apex court's earlier order directing them to pay pension arrears under OROP to several lakh eligible pensioners of the armed forces.

The petitioner's side: According to Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for the petitioners, over four lakh pensioners of the armed forces have already died while waiting for their arrears under the scheme.

What is One Rank One Pension?

Under the One Rank One Pension scheme or OROP scheme, uniform pension is to be paid to armed forces personnel retiring at the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of when they completed their service or retired.

If that confused you, let's simplify it a bit.

• Imagine 'A' serves in the army for 15 years from 1975 to 1990 and retires as a corporal. According to the old pension scheme, A's pension would be based entirely on their last drawn salary.

• However, if 'B' serves in the army for 10 years from 2010 to 2025 and retires as a corporal, their pension would also be dependent on their last drawn salary.

• But, B would be getting a much bigger pension than A, simply because of the increasing costs and standards of living, and concurrent increases in salaries.

• OROP aims to rectify this problem by giving all retired armed forces personnel who retired at the same rank with the same years of service, a uniform pension, regardless of when they served and retired.

What’s Happened in the Case So Far?

In March 2022, the Supreme Court upheld the Centre's OROP scheme for the armed forces, stating that there was no constitutional infirmity in it. The court had also said that re-adjusted pensions under OROP would have to be paid with effect from 1 July, 2019.

While ruling on OROP's soundness in March 2022, the apex court had said, “Such a decision lies within the ambit of the policy-making powers of the government. We do not find any constitutional infirmity on the OROP principle and the notification dated November 7, 2015.”

The Court had given the Centre three months to pay the arrears, and in September 2022, the Centre had asked for another three months to follow through with the order.

The state's contention: On, 9 January, 2023, speaking for the Central Government, Attorney General R Venkataramani said that the Centre had received data from 25 lakh armed forces pensioners and that the information was currently with the finance accounts of the Defence Ministry for final vetting.

Why the extension? The bench, while granting time till March 2023 to complete the payment of arrears stated, "Mr N Venkataramani, Attorney General for India states that the tabulation for nearly 25 lakh defence pensioners has been completed by the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) , Allahabad. The tabulation shall now be processed by the Controller of Defence Accounts (CDA) and will be considered by the Ministry of Defence."