Armymen's trust moves SC against disparity in pensionary benefits to different forces

NEW DELHI: An armymen's trust has moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Central government to remove the disparity in the pensionary benefit and to extend the old pension scheme benefits to the personnel of the armed forces under both the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Defence.

The petition, filed by Humara Desh Humare Jawan Trust through advocate Ajay Kumar Agrawal, said that the Central government is applying a hybrid pension scheme which is a mixture of the old and new pension scheme to the personnel of the armed forces which come under the MHA.

"We plead the Supreme Court to direct the Union of India (UOI) to remove the disparity in pensionary benefit and to extend the same benefit (old Pension Scheme) to the personnel of Armed Forces under the MHA," the petition said.

According to the petition, the armed forces which come under the Ministry of Defence are the Army, Airforce and Navy and the armed forces which come under the Ministry of Home Affairs are the Border Security Force, Central Industrial Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Indo Tibetan Border Police, National Security Guard, Assam Rifles and Shashastra Seva Bal.

The trust, which works for the cause of armed forces personnel of the country and their families, said that a new contributory pension scheme was launched by the Government of India on January 1, 2004.

"The Central government is applying a hybrid pension scheme which is a mixture of the old and new pension scheme to the Personnel of Armed forces which came under the MHA, and who joined the service after January 1, 2004. But It is specifically provided that this new contributory pension scheme is not applicable to the armed forces of UOI," the plea said.

"The Central Government had erroneously extended the provisions of notification of December 22, 2003, to the Armed Forces of the Ministry of Home and despite several representations, nothing has been done so far," it added.

The plea said that this is a violation of the principle of equality and armed forces under the Ministry of Home Affairs are these are being discriminated against. Both are armed forces of the Union under the Ministry of Defence and Home, therefore, there should be no disparity and same pensionary benefits be given to both, the plea said.