On Monday, the Ministry of Defence filed an affidavit in Apex court clarifying that the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) regime has not brought out any discrimination between the defence personnel who are in the same rank with the same length of service.
In the affidavit, they stated, “one cannot take only the same rank and ignore the length of service and similarly one cannot merely take the length of service and ignore the rank. The core parameter is the same rank and same length of service.”
This affidavit came into light when the Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) filed a petition challenging the government’s policy of reviewing the pension of retired military personnel once in five years. The petitioner claimed that the government has defeated the purpose of the OROP scheme by linking OROP and Modifying the Assured Career Progression Scheme (MACP).
Countering this challenge, the centre said, “consequently, one who had not put the same length of service and therefore not eligible for a MACP cannot be benchmarked with personnel who has qualified for MACP.”
Further in the affidavit centre also clarified that the interim budget speech of February 17, 2014, made by then finance minister P Chidambaram in Parliament on the issue of OROP was not based on any decision or recommendation of the Union Cabinet.
The apex court will continue hearing on OROP on Wednesday.
Read Also: Supreme Court questions center on OROP https://anbnews.in/wp-admin/post.php?post=3476&action=edit
