No 100% Pension Parity With Army For Pre-2009 Special Frontier Force Personnel: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has held that personnel of the Special Frontier Force (SFF) who retired prior to January 1, 2009 are not entitled to claim 100% pension parity with corresponding ranks in the Indian Army, and can only seek restoration of 45% of the commuted value of pension in terms of the earlier directions of the Court.

A Division Bench of Justices C. Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla thus dismissed the writ petition filed by the Ex-Servicemen Welfare Union, which had sought full pension parity for pre-2009 SFF Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBORs), contending that the Delhi High Court's 2016 judgment had already declared the cut-off date of January 1, 2009 to be arbitrary.

The Court clarified that while the 2016 Division Bench had indeed struck down the cut-off date fixed in the Cabinet Secretariat's order dated October 16, 2009, it did not direct grant of full pension at par with the Army to pre-2009 retirees.

It noted that the 2016 judgment struck an equitable balance, taking note of the fact that pre-2009 SFF retirees had already received a lump-sum payment equivalent to 45% of the commuted value of Army pension under earlier policies.

Rejecting the petitioner's argument that the earlier ruling envisaged 100% pension parity after 15 years, the Bench held that accepting such a claim would amount to rewriting the 2016 judgment.

The Court further noted that granting full parity would create inequity between pre-2009 retirees, who had already enjoyed the benefit of lump-sum commutation for years, and post-2009 retirees, who never received such payments.

“Grant, to all pre-1 January 2009 PBOR retirees of the SFF, of all pensionary benefits available to Indian Army personnel, even if after they had completed 15 years post retirement, would result in an inequitable balance between such retirees and those who retired after 1 January 2009. The latter category of retirees would not have had the benefit of the lump sum payment of 45% of the commuted value of the pension payable to parallel ranks in the Indian Army, as had already been earned by those who retired prior to 1 January 2009. Extending, to SFF PBORs retired prior to 1 January 2009, the entire pensionary benefits available to parallel Indian Army personnel, as was extended by the order dated 16 October 2009, would have required such pre-1 January 2009 retirees to be directed, first, to disgorge the lump-sum 45% benefit which they had already earned,” it said.

Appearance: Mr. Raju Ramachandran, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Vikas Aggarwal, Advocate for Petitioner; Mr. Rajesh Gogna, CGSC for Respondents

Case title: Ex-Servicemen Welfare Union v. Union Of India And Ors.

Case no.: W.P.(C) 1049/2020

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