The Delhi High Court bench of Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Justice Asha Menon while hearing the bunch of pleas filed by 40 Defence personnel aggrieved by the letter/circular of February 19, 1987 issued by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) granting the benefit of pro rata pension only to Commissioned Officers of the Defence Services and not to Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) / Persons Below Officer Rank (PsBOR) of the Defence Services. The court termed this as discriminatory and has directed Indian Air Force (IAF) to pay arrears of pro rata pension within 12 weeks and continue paying it to the Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) / Persons below Officer Rank (PsBOR) of the Defence Services.
The counsels appearing for the IAF said that that award of pro-rata pension carries with it a financial burden of Rs 44 crores per month and of Rs 250 crores in payment of arrears.
The court has directed that- “each petitioner to pay arrears of pro-rata pension, from the date of discharge, till the date of payment, and to, with effect from the month of March 2021 commence payment of future pro-rata pension to each of the petitioners. If the arrears are not paid within twelve weeks as aforesaid, the same will also carry interest at 7% per annum, from the expiry of twelve weeks, till the date of payment.”
