• The Supreme Court has directed the Centre to clear all One Rank One Pension (OROP) arrears totalling Rs 28,000 crore for ex-servicemen by February 28 next year, saying the government is duty-bound to comply with its 2022 judgment on the matter.

• A bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud took note of the financial difficulties pointed out by the Centre in paying the entire Rs 28,000 crore OROP dues in one go, and laid down the schedule to the ministry of defence to pay the arrears to the ex-servicemen, categorised under several heads. 

• During the hearing, it also took strong note of the Centre’s sealed cover report giving details on the payment of the OROP dues to retired military personnel, saying it wanted to put an end to this sealed cover procedure which is fundamentally contrary to the basic principle of fair process in a court of law.

• The ministry of defence was seeking extension of the deadline for clearing the OROP dues.

• Reducing the time limit to February 28 next year, the bench gave the time schedule for payment of arrears to different groups of pensioners under the OROP scheme.

• In March 2022, the Supreme Court upheld the One Rank One Pension (OROP) principle adopted by the Centre in its 2015 communication issued to the chiefs of three defence forces saying it neither suffers from any Constitutional infirmity nor is it arbitrary.

What is One Rank One Pension (OROP)?

• OROP implies that uniform pension be paid to the defence forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, regardless of their date of retirement, to bridge the gap between the rates of pension of current and past pensioners at periodic intervals.

• This implies bridging the gap between the rate of pension of the current pensioners and the past pensioners, and also future enhancements in the rate of pension to be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. 

• In armed forces, equality in service has two components, namely, rank and length of service. The importance of rank is inherent in armed forces as it has been granted by the President of India and signifies command, control and responsibility in consonance with ethos of service. These ranks are even allowed to be retained by the individual concerned after his/her retirement.

• According to the Koshyari Committee report, two armed personnel in the same rank and equal length of service should get the same pension irrespective of date of retirement and any future enhancement in rates of pension be automatically passed on to the past pensioners.

• The Modi government issued a notification on November 7, 2015 to implement One Rank One Pension for the defence force personnel with effect from July 1, 2014.

The demand for OROP

The ‘One Rank One Pension’ had been considered in the past by various committees and bodies. Some of them are:

1) K.P. Singh Dev Committee (1984): The Committee recommended that the government should consider the issue of ‘One Rank One Pension’ particularly in the light of the principle which has been already established with respect to the pension of judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts.

2) Inter-Ministerial Committee: An Inter-Ministerial Committee was set up on February 27, 2003 by the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare to consider the demand of ‘One Rank One Pension’. The Committee, in its report submitted on September 24, 2004 did not favour grant of ‘One Rank One Pension’, but recommended grant of modified parity based on the maximum of the revised scale of pay introduced with effect from January 1, 1996 for PBOR (Personnel Below Officer Rank).

3) Rajya Sabha Petition Committee: In 2011, the Rajya Sabha Petition Committee, headed by Bhagat Singh Koshyari, in its 142nd Report stated that the government should implement ‘One Rank One Pension’ in the defence forces across the board. This report is known as Koshyari Committee report.

• On February 17, 2014, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced in his Budget Speech that the central government had in principle accepted OROP and it would be implemented prospectively from financial year 2014-15. The Finance Minister stated that an amount of Rs 500 crore has been transferred to the Defence Pension Account to meet the budgetary expense. However, OROP was not implemented at the time.

• On July 10, 2014 in his Budget Speech for the year 2014-2015, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reaffirmed the Union government’s commitment to implement OROP and a further sum of Rs 1,000 crore was set apart to meet the requirement. 

• The government issued an order on November 7, 2015 to implement OROP. Armed Forces personnel retired up to June 30, 2014 were covered under this order.

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