New Delhi, February 27: The Supreme Court on Monday sought to know why the Ministry of Defence passed a unilateral notification extending the time for payment of One Rank-One Pension (OROP) arrears to retired army personnel.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud directed the Secretary in the pension scheme department of the Ministry of Defence to file a response explaining why the defence ministry passed a "unilateral" notification for payment of OROP arrears to retired army personnel in four equal instalments.

"The Defence Ministry has earlier sought an extension, which was granted by the top court by order of September 16, 2022. A further extension was granted in January 2023 for three months," the court observed.

The Centre issued a notification later in January this year that arrears on account of the revision of pension from July 1, 2019, till the date of its implementation shall be paid by the Pension Disbursing Agencies in four instalments, the court further noted.

However, the government has also said that it will pay arrears in one instalment to all the family pensioners including those in receipt of special or liberalized family pensions and all gallantry award winners. An application was filed by Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement (IESM) in the Supreme Court challenging government notification.

The court asked how can department modify it when the court has passed an order to pay the arrears by March this year. The court remarked that this is not war but it is under the rule of law and warned the Ministry of Defence that it may issue a contempt notice, asking them to set its house in order. The court listed the matter after Holi. The decision to implement OROP was taken by the Narendra Modi government on November 7, 2015, with benefits effective from July 1, 2014.

OROP was a long-standing demand of the armed forces and implies that retired soldiers of the same rank, who have retired after serving for the same length of service, will receive the same pension, irrespective of the date and year of their retirement. Cabinet Revises OROP for Defence Personnel, Family Pensioners.

Earlier, the top court dismissed the review petition which had challenged its decision on this policy. The review petition was moved in the Supreme Court challenging the top court judgement delivered in March last year.

The Supreme Court in March last year had uphold the Centre Government decision on One Rank One Pension as it said that the OROP definition is not arbitrary and it does not find any constitutional infirmity in the OROP principle as defined by the communication on 7 November 2015.

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