Old pension scheme applies to all CAPF personnel, says HC

Holding that the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) are a part of the armed forces of the union government, the Delhi High court has ruled that all employees of these paramilitary forces will be entitled to avail the Old Pension Scheme as applicable to the Army, Navy and Airforce.

In a landmark judgment on Wednesday, a bench of justices Suresh Kait and Neena Krishna Bansal, said that Article 246 of Constitution of India envisages that Armed Forces of the Union of India include “Naval, Military and Air Forces; (and) any other armed forces of the Union”, and hence, CAPF personnel deserve to get the benefit of Old Pension Scheme (OPS) .

The court said held the CAPFs will not be covered under the New Pension Scheme as mentioned in the home ministry’s notification of December 22, 2003, and directed the Centre to issue necessary orders within eight weeks.

According to the December notification, the New Contributory Pension Scheme (NPS) was implemented with effect from January 1, 2004 even though it had excluded the armed forces. It had, however, clarified that the NPS would be mandatory for all new recruits to the central Government service from 1st of January 2004.

Noting this, the court said, “Meaning thereby, the Armed Forces shall be governed by the Old Pension Scheme already existing. Also, the said notification stipulated that the scheme shall not be applicable to Armed Forces and they shall be governed by the Old Pension Scheme already existing”.

MHA didn’t respond to a query by HT.

NPS allows subscribers (government employees) to decide where they want to invest their money by contributing regularly in a pension account throughout their career. After retirement they can withdraw a part of the pension amount in a lump sum and use the rest to buy an annuity for a regular income.

The old pension scheme was defined as opposed to the investment return-based NPS. In the NPS, the government and employees contribute an equal portion towards the pension fund. The old scheme provided 50% of the last drawn salary as the pension The minimum payment to retired employees as pension is ₹3,500 in the NPS, with those above 80 getting an additional pension between 20 and 100 per cent of basic pensions.

The NPS vs OPS debate has gathered momentum in recent months, with several non-BJP ruled government deciding to revert to OPS, demanding return of the money collected under NPS (which the Centre has rejected), and making it a political issue.

Army veteran Amit Kumar welcomed the judgment and said that it’s a fantastic ruling by the high court.

“He said that this was long due for the paramilitary forces, as they are also doing the same duty of safeguarding the nation and controlling insurgency. Even the CAPFs serve at difficult terrain and in extreme weather conditions to control insurgency. Several times, they don’t even get to talk to their families for several days. Hence, this is a great ruling by the high court,” Kumar said.

The HC’s judgment comes on a batch of 82 petitions by personnel of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Sashtra Seema Bal (SSB), Border Security Force (BSF) , Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), and Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) seeking to quash the orders denying them the benefit of the Old Pension Scheme.

The petitioners also sought quashing of an Office Memorandum of February 17, 2020 to the extent it does not grant benefit of Old Pension Scheme to the personnel who have been appointed pursuant to notifications/ advertisements dated January 1, 2004.

Appearing for the petitioners, advocate Ankur Chibber pointed to various decisions and the fact that the Supreme Court has clarified that CRPF is an Armed Force of the Union of India.

Ruling in their favour, the court said that the Old Pension Scheme shall not only be applicable in the case of petitioners but all personnel of CAPFs at large.

The court said that the Supreme Court and the high courts across the country in various decisions have appreciated the role of armed forces in safeguarding our country.

“Having great respect for the personnel of forces, the courts as well as Government of India, have always ensured that any policy decision should not be detrimental to their interest. The contents of notification dated December 22, 2003 as well as OM dated February 17, 2020 clearly demonstrate that when policy decision to implement NPS was taken, the armed forces of the country were kept out of its domain. Accordingly, we are of the considered opinion that the notification as well as office memorandum are required to be implemented in their true essence,” it said in a 58-page judgment released on Thursday.

The court said when the MHA, vide circular of August 6, 2004 has itself declared that the Central Forces under it’s administrative control are Armed Forces of Union, the position cannot be disputed.

The Union government, in response argued that Ministry of Finance, Government of India, vide notification dated December 22, 2003 implemented NPS for new entrants to central government service, except to Armed Forces, thereby replacing the OPS.

It had said that since the petitioners joined the services after the notification, they were not entitled to OPS under the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972.