IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
W. P. (C) NO.______OF 2015
IN THE MATTER OF:
Central Bank Retirees Grievances
Cell “Kasht-Haran” & Anr. …Petitioners
...
VERSUS
Ministry of Finance & Ors. …Respondents
PETITION UNDER ARTICLE 226 AND 227 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA FOR ISSUANCE OF WRIT OF CERTIORARI, MANDAMUS OR ANY OTHER APPROPRIATE WRIT, RULE, ORDER OR DIRECTION FOR UPDATION OF PENSION OF BANK RETIREES.
MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH:
1. That the petitioner is filing the writ petition under Article 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India for issuance of writ of certiorari, mandamus or any other appropriate writ, rule, order or direction for updation of Pension of Bank Retirees.
2. That the petitioner is a Trust created to help the Bank Retirees and to pursue the legal remedies to the grievances of the Bank Retirees through its Chairman Sh. Som Prakash Srivastava who himself is a Bank Retiree from Central Bank of India.
3. That the respondent No.1 i.e. Ministry of Finance is having overall control and policy making Government Authority hence respondent No.1 is a necessary party herein. The respondent No.2 i.e. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is an authority to make rules and regulations guiding all the Nationalized Banks of the country. All the rules and regulations framed for the Nationalized Banks are formulated with due consultation and approval of the RBI, thus, the same is also necessary party herein. The respondent No.3 i.e. Indian Banks Association (IBA) is an association of all Nationalized and other Banks and is an empowered body to negotiate, settle and represent on their behalf. IBA is instrumental for formulation of rules, regulations and policies in the banking industry. Since IBA represents all Nationalized Banks and acts in the representative capacity, instead of making all the nationalized banks party to the case, the petitioner chose to implead the IBA only.
Further, it may be noted that as per Section 19 of the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings ) Act, 1970, all rules & regulations framed require consultation by RBI and previous sanction of the Central Govt.
4. That the brief facts of the case are as follows: a Settlement dated 29.10.1993 between Bank Employees Representatives and Bank Management represented by IBA was arrived at for the pension related issues of the bank employees. As a result, the Bank Employees Pensions Regulations, 1995 came into existence and it was made enforceable w.e.f. 29.09.1995 when the due Notification was issued. Initially the said regulation covered only those Bank Employees who retired after 01.11.1993. However, later on, it was extended to the employees retired from 01.01.1986 onwards. A copy of Settlement dated 29.10.1993 is placed on record and marked as ANNEXURE P-1. In view of the said Settlement all the Banks framed Pensions Regulations 1995. They are almost all similar and hence a copy of one Bank namely Central Bank Employees Pension Regulation, 1995 is placed on record and marked as ANNEXURE P-2.
5. That the Banks framed Pensions Regulations, 1995 consists of three components (a) Basic Pension (b) Dearness Allowance & (c) one time payment of commutation on optional basis. Revision or Resettling of basic pension is a universal phenomenon. Basic Pension linked to basic pay has always been subject to revision corresponding to the revision of basic pay time to time. The basic pension should necessarily be updated to the wages/salary settlement in the banking industry. Unfortunately no updation has been carried out since the inception of the pension scheme to the bank retirees. Rather, unjustified categories of passed retirees and recent retirees have further added to the discrimination of that basis imparted by respondent No.3 on that basis.
6. That the respondent No.3 has compartmentalized the retired personnel without any justification and has allowed discrimination in the payment of basic pension and DA. The Dearness Allowance linked with consumer price index, given to the pensioners is also subject to discrimination. The bank retirees between 01.01.1986 and 31.03.2002 do not get 100% DA while others are paid 100% DA. Such discrimination is patently illegal as all are affected in the similar manner due to inflation. All the pensioners of Govt. service and that of RBI get 100% DA. This discriminatory action of banks is also contrary to the Clause-6 of the Settlement dated 29.10.1993 which is as follows:-
“6. Dearness relief to pensioners will be granted at such rates as may be determined from time to time in line with the dearness allowance formula in operation in RBI.”
7. That it is pertinent to note herein that after the Regulation, 1995, initially around 40% of the bank employees opted for pension as that was not considered beneficial by the bank employees. Gradually, when the employees became aware of the correct position of the scheme, the Unions/Associations of the bank employees kept on insisting to open yet another opportunity to opt for pension. In the 9th Settlement the Unions/Associations successfully brought another opportunity to opt for pension and resultantly, now around 98% bank retirees have opted for their pension. Due to the said situation, though the updation of basic pension has always been in the agenda, the same was never strongly agitated by the representatives of the bank employees and bank retirees. And the Banks kept on their discriminatory mechanism of computation of non updated basic pension alongwith D.A. discriminately.
8. That the Bank Retirees have broadly been kept in three categories:
i. Pre 1986 retirees whose basic component is ex-gratia drawn by them.
ii. Pensioners who retired between 01.01.1986 and 31.10.1992 draw basic pension upto Rs. 1250/-
iii. Pensioners who retired between 01.11.1992 upto 31.03.1998 draw basic pension upto Rs. 2400/-
iv. Pensioners who retired between 01.04.1998 to 31.03.02 draw basic pension upto Rs. 3550/-
This basic pension which should be revised as per increment in the pay scales as has been carried out in all Govt. Deptt./organization has remained stagmant to the Bank retirees.
9. That first of all updation of pension need not to be mentioned in the Regulation but is implied as the same need to be updated as per increase in the corresponding pay scales and salaries time to time. Secondly, it is patently against the spirit of Settlement dated 29.10.1993 that the updation clause was not inserted exclusively in the Regulations, 1995.
10. That the definition and scope of the term “Pension” itself includes:
a. different types of pensions, including family pension,
b. commutation of pension,
c. restoration of commuted pension,
d. suspension of pension,
e. withholding of pension,
f. withdrawal of pension,
g. forfeiture of pension,
h. updation of pension,
i. dearness relief on pension,
j. and so on and on.
Thus, the updation of pension is inherent and implied in the Scheme of Pension itself.
11. That notably as per clause-12 of the Pension Settlement dated 29.10.1993, provisions of the Regulation were required to be made by a Scheme through negotiation and settlement between the parties for applicability, qualifying service, amount of pension, payment of pension, commutation of pension, family pension, updating and other general conditions etc. on the lines of as are in the force in RBI.
12. That the consequence of the said omission of updation of pension is that the officers of the Rank of Chairman, Gen. Manager, Deputy Gen. Manager are getting their pension less than even to the Clerk & Peon of the Bank. One Sh. R.R. Kumar, Ex-Chairman, pre 1986 retiree, gets only Rs. 3000/- as pension. Following chart is indicative of the consequence of non updation of pension of Bank Retirees.
----------------------------------------
NAME OF POST/PAY DATE OF BASIC PENSION
RETIREE SCALE RETIREMENT
----------------------------------------
R.R. Kumar Chairman Pre 1986 3000
D.M. Tondon 2/Officer 31.07.1993 4357
A.C. Sharma 3/Officer 30.11.1996 5258
M.L. Pandey 2/Officer 31.05.1999 4945
S.P. Chaudhary 2/Officer 30.04.1998 4945
B.K. Chaturvedi 2/Officer 30.11.1986 1462
P.N. Kakkar 3/Officer 31.10.1993 6926
R.B. Dubey 4/Officer 31.12.1992 2775
----------------------------------------
Thus, it shows as to how the officers of the Bank are getting minimal pension.
13. That Regulations, 1995 was framed and updation of pension stands to be implied in the same as that was the part of said settlement. “Other General Conditions etc.” of Clause-12 of the Regulations, 1995 did not exclusively mentioned updation of pension while it introduced all other aspects like suspension of pension, withholding of pension, withdrawal of pension, forfeiture of pension etc. as mentioned in the settlement.
14. That the demand of updation of basic pension has been denied by the IBA on the ground of the cost of updation of pension. This is totally unjustified and misleading.
15. That the Bank Retirees totally depended upon Bank Employees Association for ventilation of their grievances. The said issue was raised by them time and again but unfortunately it was never fructified. The charter of Demands dated 30.10.2012 presented to the Chairman of I.B.A. by five Bank Employees Associations/Federation raised the issue of updation of pension of Bank Retirees vide Sl. No. 22 which reads as under:
“22. RETIRED EMPLOYEES
▪ LFC and Hospitalization reimbursement should be extended to retired bank employees.
▪ Insurance cover to be provided.
▪ Ex-gratia to pre 1986 retirees/widows to be revised.
▪ Pension updation alongwith wage revision of service employees, revising the Basic Pension of all past retirees to the index point under 10th BPS, uniform rate of DA for all pensioners and removal of slab DA system for past retirees, improvement in family pension etc. on the lines of the Government/RBI Scheme.
▪ The percentage of allocation towards welfare schemes of retirees should be uniformly defined.”
16. That a Joint Note dated 27.04.2010 of the Negotiating Committee of IBA and authorised representatives of the officers Associations on salary revision and other issues concerning service conditions for bank officers. Amongst other issues, the issue of extending another option to those bank retirees who could not opt for pension was agreed to. The revision of pension of all Bank Retirees were not considered. A charger of demands dated 30.10.2012 was presented to the Chairman, IBA by several Bank employees Unions/Associations/Federation jointly. It categorically raised the issue of updation of pension vide Sl. No. 22 which is as follows:
United front of Bank Unions raised the following issues in the meeting held on 14.03.2014 with IBA.
a. Uniform D.A. to all pensioners
b. Improvement in family pension on the lines of RBI and
c. Updation of basic pension.
All India Bank Retirees Federation (AIBRF) also represented on 19.01.2015 to the IBA and raised following issues:
(1) Uniform dearness relief to all pensioners
(2) Pension updation of past retirees
(3) Improvement of family pension
(4) Uniform hospitalization scheme for retirees
(5) Pension option to left over past retirees.
Further All India Bank Officers Association also raised pension related issues vide letter dated 06.02.2015 and specifically raised following issues:
(a) Family Pension- increase to 30% as in the case of RBI;
(b) Updation of pension
(c) 100% D A to retirees w.e.f. 01.11.2002
(d) Hospitalization scheme as available to serving employees.
17. That despite aforesaid representations and demands raised by different associations/unions of bank employees, the minutes of the discussions held on 23/02/2015 between IBA and Workmen Unions/Officers Associations have again left out the pension related issues. A copy of the said minutes dated 23/02/2015 is placed on record and marked as ANNEXURE-P-
18. That aforesaid facts clearly shows that neither the Unons/Associtations, nor IBA nor the Government is serious about the genuine, bonafide and legitimate demand of the bank retirees who are feeling totally helpless. They have been left with no option but to file the present petition and seeking indulgence of the Hon’ble Court for ventilation of their genuine grievances.
,
24. That in the aforesaid facts and circumstances, the present writ petition is being filed on the following amongst other grounds:-
GROUNDS:
W. P. (C) NO.______OF 2015
IN THE MATTER OF:
Central Bank Retirees Grievances
Cell “Kasht-Haran” & Anr. …Petitioners
...
VERSUS
Ministry of Finance & Ors. …Respondents
PETITION UNDER ARTICLE 226 AND 227 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA FOR ISSUANCE OF WRIT OF CERTIORARI, MANDAMUS OR ANY OTHER APPROPRIATE WRIT, RULE, ORDER OR DIRECTION FOR UPDATION OF PENSION OF BANK RETIREES.
MOST RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH:
1. That the petitioner is filing the writ petition under Article 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India for issuance of writ of certiorari, mandamus or any other appropriate writ, rule, order or direction for updation of Pension of Bank Retirees.
2. That the petitioner is a Trust created to help the Bank Retirees and to pursue the legal remedies to the grievances of the Bank Retirees through its Chairman Sh. Som Prakash Srivastava who himself is a Bank Retiree from Central Bank of India.
3. That the respondent No.1 i.e. Ministry of Finance is having overall control and policy making Government Authority hence respondent No.1 is a necessary party herein. The respondent No.2 i.e. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is an authority to make rules and regulations guiding all the Nationalized Banks of the country. All the rules and regulations framed for the Nationalized Banks are formulated with due consultation and approval of the RBI, thus, the same is also necessary party herein. The respondent No.3 i.e. Indian Banks Association (IBA) is an association of all Nationalized and other Banks and is an empowered body to negotiate, settle and represent on their behalf. IBA is instrumental for formulation of rules, regulations and policies in the banking industry. Since IBA represents all Nationalized Banks and acts in the representative capacity, instead of making all the nationalized banks party to the case, the petitioner chose to implead the IBA only.
Further, it may be noted that as per Section 19 of the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings ) Act, 1970, all rules & regulations framed require consultation by RBI and previous sanction of the Central Govt.
4. That the brief facts of the case are as follows: a Settlement dated 29.10.1993 between Bank Employees Representatives and Bank Management represented by IBA was arrived at for the pension related issues of the bank employees. As a result, the Bank Employees Pensions Regulations, 1995 came into existence and it was made enforceable w.e.f. 29.09.1995 when the due Notification was issued. Initially the said regulation covered only those Bank Employees who retired after 01.11.1993. However, later on, it was extended to the employees retired from 01.01.1986 onwards. A copy of Settlement dated 29.10.1993 is placed on record and marked as ANNEXURE P-1. In view of the said Settlement all the Banks framed Pensions Regulations 1995. They are almost all similar and hence a copy of one Bank namely Central Bank Employees Pension Regulation, 1995 is placed on record and marked as ANNEXURE P-2.
5. That the Banks framed Pensions Regulations, 1995 consists of three components (a) Basic Pension (b) Dearness Allowance & (c) one time payment of commutation on optional basis. Revision or Resettling of basic pension is a universal phenomenon. Basic Pension linked to basic pay has always been subject to revision corresponding to the revision of basic pay time to time. The basic pension should necessarily be updated to the wages/salary settlement in the banking industry. Unfortunately no updation has been carried out since the inception of the pension scheme to the bank retirees. Rather, unjustified categories of passed retirees and recent retirees have further added to the discrimination of that basis imparted by respondent No.3 on that basis.
6. That the respondent No.3 has compartmentalized the retired personnel without any justification and has allowed discrimination in the payment of basic pension and DA. The Dearness Allowance linked with consumer price index, given to the pensioners is also subject to discrimination. The bank retirees between 01.01.1986 and 31.03.2002 do not get 100% DA while others are paid 100% DA. Such discrimination is patently illegal as all are affected in the similar manner due to inflation. All the pensioners of Govt. service and that of RBI get 100% DA. This discriminatory action of banks is also contrary to the Clause-6 of the Settlement dated 29.10.1993 which is as follows:-
“6. Dearness relief to pensioners will be granted at such rates as may be determined from time to time in line with the dearness allowance formula in operation in RBI.”
7. That it is pertinent to note herein that after the Regulation, 1995, initially around 40% of the bank employees opted for pension as that was not considered beneficial by the bank employees. Gradually, when the employees became aware of the correct position of the scheme, the Unions/Associations of the bank employees kept on insisting to open yet another opportunity to opt for pension. In the 9th Settlement the Unions/Associations successfully brought another opportunity to opt for pension and resultantly, now around 98% bank retirees have opted for their pension. Due to the said situation, though the updation of basic pension has always been in the agenda, the same was never strongly agitated by the representatives of the bank employees and bank retirees. And the Banks kept on their discriminatory mechanism of computation of non updated basic pension alongwith D.A. discriminately.
8. That the Bank Retirees have broadly been kept in three categories:
i. Pre 1986 retirees whose basic component is ex-gratia drawn by them.
ii. Pensioners who retired between 01.01.1986 and 31.10.1992 draw basic pension upto Rs. 1250/-
iii. Pensioners who retired between 01.11.1992 upto 31.03.1998 draw basic pension upto Rs. 2400/-
iv. Pensioners who retired between 01.04.1998 to 31.03.02 draw basic pension upto Rs. 3550/-
This basic pension which should be revised as per increment in the pay scales as has been carried out in all Govt. Deptt./organization has remained stagmant to the Bank retirees.
9. That first of all updation of pension need not to be mentioned in the Regulation but is implied as the same need to be updated as per increase in the corresponding pay scales and salaries time to time. Secondly, it is patently against the spirit of Settlement dated 29.10.1993 that the updation clause was not inserted exclusively in the Regulations, 1995.
10. That the definition and scope of the term “Pension” itself includes:
a. different types of pensions, including family pension,
b. commutation of pension,
c. restoration of commuted pension,
d. suspension of pension,
e. withholding of pension,
f. withdrawal of pension,
g. forfeiture of pension,
h. updation of pension,
i. dearness relief on pension,
j. and so on and on.
Thus, the updation of pension is inherent and implied in the Scheme of Pension itself.
11. That notably as per clause-12 of the Pension Settlement dated 29.10.1993, provisions of the Regulation were required to be made by a Scheme through negotiation and settlement between the parties for applicability, qualifying service, amount of pension, payment of pension, commutation of pension, family pension, updating and other general conditions etc. on the lines of as are in the force in RBI.
12. That the consequence of the said omission of updation of pension is that the officers of the Rank of Chairman, Gen. Manager, Deputy Gen. Manager are getting their pension less than even to the Clerk & Peon of the Bank. One Sh. R.R. Kumar, Ex-Chairman, pre 1986 retiree, gets only Rs. 3000/- as pension. Following chart is indicative of the consequence of non updation of pension of Bank Retirees.
----------------------------------------
NAME OF POST/PAY DATE OF BASIC PENSION
RETIREE SCALE RETIREMENT
----------------------------------------
R.R. Kumar Chairman Pre 1986 3000
D.M. Tondon 2/Officer 31.07.1993 4357
A.C. Sharma 3/Officer 30.11.1996 5258
M.L. Pandey 2/Officer 31.05.1999 4945
S.P. Chaudhary 2/Officer 30.04.1998 4945
B.K. Chaturvedi 2/Officer 30.11.1986 1462
P.N. Kakkar 3/Officer 31.10.1993 6926
R.B. Dubey 4/Officer 31.12.1992 2775
----------------------------------------
Thus, it shows as to how the officers of the Bank are getting minimal pension.
13. That Regulations, 1995 was framed and updation of pension stands to be implied in the same as that was the part of said settlement. “Other General Conditions etc.” of Clause-12 of the Regulations, 1995 did not exclusively mentioned updation of pension while it introduced all other aspects like suspension of pension, withholding of pension, withdrawal of pension, forfeiture of pension etc. as mentioned in the settlement.
14. That the demand of updation of basic pension has been denied by the IBA on the ground of the cost of updation of pension. This is totally unjustified and misleading.
15. That the Bank Retirees totally depended upon Bank Employees Association for ventilation of their grievances. The said issue was raised by them time and again but unfortunately it was never fructified. The charter of Demands dated 30.10.2012 presented to the Chairman of I.B.A. by five Bank Employees Associations/Federation raised the issue of updation of pension of Bank Retirees vide Sl. No. 22 which reads as under:
“22. RETIRED EMPLOYEES
▪ LFC and Hospitalization reimbursement should be extended to retired bank employees.
▪ Insurance cover to be provided.
▪ Ex-gratia to pre 1986 retirees/widows to be revised.
▪ Pension updation alongwith wage revision of service employees, revising the Basic Pension of all past retirees to the index point under 10th BPS, uniform rate of DA for all pensioners and removal of slab DA system for past retirees, improvement in family pension etc. on the lines of the Government/RBI Scheme.
▪ The percentage of allocation towards welfare schemes of retirees should be uniformly defined.”
16. That a Joint Note dated 27.04.2010 of the Negotiating Committee of IBA and authorised representatives of the officers Associations on salary revision and other issues concerning service conditions for bank officers. Amongst other issues, the issue of extending another option to those bank retirees who could not opt for pension was agreed to. The revision of pension of all Bank Retirees were not considered. A charger of demands dated 30.10.2012 was presented to the Chairman, IBA by several Bank employees Unions/Associations/Federation jointly. It categorically raised the issue of updation of pension vide Sl. No. 22 which is as follows:
United front of Bank Unions raised the following issues in the meeting held on 14.03.2014 with IBA.
a. Uniform D.A. to all pensioners
b. Improvement in family pension on the lines of RBI and
c. Updation of basic pension.
All India Bank Retirees Federation (AIBRF) also represented on 19.01.2015 to the IBA and raised following issues:
(1) Uniform dearness relief to all pensioners
(2) Pension updation of past retirees
(3) Improvement of family pension
(4) Uniform hospitalization scheme for retirees
(5) Pension option to left over past retirees.
Further All India Bank Officers Association also raised pension related issues vide letter dated 06.02.2015 and specifically raised following issues:
(a) Family Pension- increase to 30% as in the case of RBI;
(b) Updation of pension
(c) 100% D A to retirees w.e.f. 01.11.2002
(d) Hospitalization scheme as available to serving employees.
17. That despite aforesaid representations and demands raised by different associations/unions of bank employees, the minutes of the discussions held on 23/02/2015 between IBA and Workmen Unions/Officers Associations have again left out the pension related issues. A copy of the said minutes dated 23/02/2015 is placed on record and marked as ANNEXURE-P-
18. That aforesaid facts clearly shows that neither the Unons/Associtations, nor IBA nor the Government is serious about the genuine, bonafide and legitimate demand of the bank retirees who are feeling totally helpless. They have been left with no option but to file the present petition and seeking indulgence of the Hon’ble Court for ventilation of their genuine grievances.
,
24. That in the aforesaid facts and circumstances, the present writ petition is being filed on the following amongst other grounds:-
GROUNDS:
What are thhe other "Grounds" mentioned in the petition but not covered in this post? Also, what is the present state of the petition?
ReplyDelete