SC rejects plea to scrap pension for MPs

The Constitution specifically mentions payment of pension to retiree President, Vice-President, Supreme Court and High Court judges to assure them that their independent decisions, taken while in office, will not leave them in penury post retirement, the Supreme Court said in an judgment delivered on Monday.

A Bench of Justices Jasti Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul made the observations in their verdict refusing to scrap pension and benefits to former parliamentarians.

“The framers of the Constitution believed that certain offices required a higher degree of protection, having regard to the greater degree of independence expected of the holders of their offices. The framers knew history and the attempts of the men in power to subjugate the holders of such offices,” Justice Chelameswar, who authored the judgment, observed.

The court, however, dismissed arguments by the petitioner NGO, Lok Prahari, that MPs were not eligible for pension as the Constitution did not mention it. The judgment said the Constitution’s silence about paying them pension did not make them ineligible. If that was the logic, then Central and State Ministers, Chairman and Deputy Chairman and Speaker and Deputy Speaker, among others, would not have got pension.