Relief to thousands of officers

In a landmark judgment, which will provide relief to thousands of soldiers, Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday decided not to interfere in its earlier decision and ruled for inclusion of rank pay in basic salary for all those officers who were holding the rank of Capt to Brig and their equivalents in Air Force and Navy as on January 1, 1986.

After the 4th Central Pay Commission (CPC), rank pay was authorised to officers from the rank of Capt to Brig and their equivalent in Air Force and Navy ranging from Rs 200 to 1200, which was to be added into the basic pay for all purposes.

But a mistake separated the rank pay from the basic pay. So when the officers retired, the pension was calculated on the basis of basic pay, which was amounting lesser.

The Kerala High Court in a case filed by Maj AK Dhanapalan had termed illegal the deduction of rank pay from basic pay in 1998.

Soon thereafter, many similar petitions were filed in various high courts all over the country that were clubbed together and transferred to the SC to be heard along with a Special Leave Petition of similar nature that had arisen out of a case that was allowed on the basis of the judgement in Maj Dhanapalan’s case.

On March 8, 2010, SC upheld the verdict and granted relief to all the similarly placed offices.

The government went for recall of an order on the grounds of burdening of the exchequer and also stated therein that SC did not consider many issues on the subject.