Applicability of CCS (RP) Rules, 2016 to
persons re-employed
Government Service and whose pay is debitable to civil
estimates -reg.
No. Conf/Re-emp.Ex-Service/2016-19
Dated - 01.01.2018
Shri Ajay Narayan Jha,
Secretary
Department of Expenditure
Ministry of Finance, Government of India
Room
No.129-A, North Block
New Delhi - 110001
Sub:
Applicability
of CCS (RP) Rules, 2016 to persons re-employed
Government Service and
whose pay is debitable to civil estimates -
reg.
Ref : DoPT O.M. No. F.No. 3/3/2016-Estt.(Pay-II) dated
18.10.2017.
Sir,
1.
Confederation of Central Government Employees and
Workers has received
numerous complaints from re-employed ex-servicemen on
the matter of
their initial pay fixation in the re-employed posts. We
have taken up
this case in the Standing Committee meeting of JCM
National Council as
an agenda item. Minutes of the Standing Committee
meeting circulated in
DOP & T OM No.3/3/2016-JCA dated 08-08-2017 is
reproduced below:
"S.No.36
- Removal of ambiguity in fixation of pay of re-
employed ex-servicemen
and grant of the same benefit extended to commissioned
officers to
Personal Below Officers Rank (PBOR) also.
Reply: Establishment Division in their comments dated
28-03-2017 had stated that -
(i)
The first issue relates to pay fixation on re-
employment in Civil
Services and Public Sector Banks etc. Department of
Financial Services
(DoFS) is stated to have clarified that pay fixation of
ex-servicemen
would be through protection of pay plus DA drawn by
them at the time of
release from the Armed Forces. DoFS orders provide that
in addition to
the pay fixed on re-employment, pension and other
retirement benefits
would also be allowed.
(ii) Establishment Division of DOP&T
has clarified to Department of Posts that initial pay
on re-employment
in case of ex-servicemen who had held posts below
Commissioned Officers
and Civilians below Group-A, shall be fixed as per the
entry pay in the
revised pay structure of the re-employed posts
applicable to the case of
direct recruits appointed on or after 01-01-2006.
(iii) Staff
side says there is contradictions in the two
clarifications and, as a
result of the ambiguity, one section has benefited
(Personnel who are
covered under the instructions of DoFS) while others
are not (Personnel
who are covered under the instructions of DoPT). JS(E)
stated that they
had received a number of grievances and the Department
of Welfare of
Ex-Servicemen had also raised this issue. Presently
there are two
formulations for pay fixation of ex-servicemen - one
for Group-A Posts
and another for others - which is not an ideal
situation. It was stated
that the same is under active consideration and a
decision is likely
shortly."
We understand that it is in this background
DOPT has circulated a revised draft proposal seeking
opinion from other
nodal Ministers. In that context, I would like to draw
your kind
attention to the succeeding facts and circumstances of
the case.
History of Rules/ OMs Governing Pay-fixation on
Re-Employment
2.
Before delving into the above captioned subject, it
would be prudent to
retrace the evolution of statutory rules governing the
initial fixation
of pay of re-employed pensioners. The first
comprehensive policy on the
subject was issued by Department of Expenditure, MoF
vide their O.M.
No. 8(34)/Est. III/57 dated 25.11.1958 (Annexure-I)
which when read in
conjunction with Article 510-526 of Central Services
Regulation
(Annexure-II), inter-alia states that:-
(a)
Re-employed pensioners should be allowed only the
prescribed scales of
pay, that is, no protected time scales such as those
available to
pre-1931 entrants should be extended to them.
(b) The initial pay,
on re-employment should be fixed at the minimum stage
of the scale of
pay prescribed for the post in which an individual is
re-employed. In
cases where it is felt that the fixation of initial pay
of the
re-employed officer at the minimum of the prescribed
pay scale will
cause undue hardship, the pay may be fixed at a higher
stage by allowing
one increment for each year of service which the
officer has rendered
before retirement in a post not lower than that in
which he is
re-employed.
(c) In addition to (b) above the Government
servant
may be permitted to draw separately any pension
sanctioned to him and to
retain any other form of retirement benefit for which
he is eligible
e.g. Government's contribution to a Contributory
Provident Fund,
gratuity, commuted value of pension, etc.
3. The said
policy was in vogue till 30.07.1986, with suitable
amendments from time
to time in so far as the amount of pension to be
ignored while fixing
the pay in the re-employed post is as given below :-
4. However,
the subject was transferred to DoPT in 1986, therefore,
all subsequent
instructions were issued under the aegis of DoPT. One
such impugned
instruction is the CCS (Fixation of Pay of Re-employed
Pensioners)
Orders, 1986 issued vide DOPT OM No. 3/1/85-Estt.
(Pay-II) dated
31.07.1986 (Annexure-VIII). The subject order has been
subsequently
amended by DOPT vide their O.M. No. 3/19/2009-Estt
(Pay-II) dated
05.04.2010 (Annexure-XI), 08.11.2010 (Annexure-XII)and
O.M. No.
3/3/2016-Estt (Pay II) dated 01.05.2017(Annexure-X).
However, these
orders have failed to incorporate 'Hardship Clause' for
pay fixation in
respect of PBORs which has resulted in lot of heartburn
and anomalous
situation of pay-fixation post 1986 order viz-a-viz
pre-1986 retirees.
The situation has worsened post implementation of the
6th CPC and the
recent 7th CPC, causing large-scale upheaval among PBOR
ex-servicemen
and further resulting in unending litigation in various
courts of law
across the country. Confederation has submitted a
representation in
September 2015 addressed to Shri. Jithendra Singh,
Minister for State,
Department of Personnel explaining the above position
and requested to
review the DOP&T orders. The matter was taken up in
JCM also as
stated above. Under such circumstances, DoPT has now
decided to
formulate a new policy, for which they have sought
comments of
Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare, MoD, Department of
Expenditure, MoF
and Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare. I
would like to
reiterate that unless there is a cogent reason, the
policies affecting
lives of millions of ex-servicemen should not be
arbitrarily amended.
This is especially evident from intentional/
unintentional omission of
"hardship clause" from pay-fixation orders issued by
DoPT which are at
variance from the instructions issued by DoE till
1986.
5. It is
also brought to the notice of Department of Expenditure
that in view of
large scale representation/litigation and discontent
among re-employed
ex-servicemen after issue of DoPT O.M.3/3/2016-Estt
(Pay-II) dated
01.05.2017, Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare, MoD
vide their O.M. No
28(11)2017/D (Res-I) dated 24.07.2017 (Annexure-XIII)
had suggested DoPT
to completely revive the provisions contained in DoE,
MoF O.M. No.
8(34)/Est. III/57 dated 25.11.1958. But, the proposal
of DESW stated in
Para 6 of their above cited O. M. would only be
beneficial only if
status quo existed till 30.06.1986 is fully revived. In
other words, any
proposal to revive the 1958 Orders would be beneficial
to re-employed
ex-servicemen (PBOR) only if the entire pension is
ignored for fixation
of pay in the re-employed post, i.e. the pension is not
to be taken into
account while fixing the pay as per Ministry of
Defence O.M. No. 2
(1)/83/D (Civ.I) dated 08.02.1983 and Ministry of
Finance, Dept. of
Expenditure No. F. 4 (3)-E. III (B)/82 dated
13.12.1983.
OPINION/ RECOMMENDATION OF THE
CONFEDERATION
Computation of Pre-Retirement Pay for the
purpose of Pay-Fixation
6.
Similarly, the concept of pre-retirement pay (PRP) has
undergone
changes to the detriment of re-employed pensioners/ex-
servicemen. It may
be appreciated that Article 510 of Central Service
Regulations, DoE
O.M. 5(21)-Est. III(B)/64 dated 15.06.1964(Annexure
XIV), DoPT O.M. No.
3/1/86-Estt (P.II) dated 31.07.1986 include all
components of pay such
as rank pay, increments of pay for length of service,
Good Service Pay,
Classification Pay and X-Group Pay as a part of PRP.
However, the
proposal sent by DoPT for comments only takes basic pay
as PRP like
Armed Forces Officers, while ignoring other components
which are part of
pension. It would be prudent to mention that PRP of
Armed Forces
Officer and Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBOR) has
never been same and
treating PRP of Armed Forces Officer as that of PBOR
will not only
create anomalous situation but also bring financial
losses to PBOR.
Treatment of Military Service Pay.
7.
It is submitted that as per Part I, Section-3 of
Gazette Notification
dated 30 August, 2008 (Annexure XV), Cabinet Resolution
accepted Military
Service Pay (Serial 2 of Annexure I-Part A) as part of
pay in respect
of all defence forces and is to be counted for pay
fixation and pension
in accordance with Para 2.3.12 of 6th CPC
Recommendations(Annexure XVI).
However, Defence Ministry arbitrarily overridden the
above aspect
through their O.M. dated 24.07.2009. Accordingly, DOPT
has denied the
benefit of MSP to all defence pensioners whereas the
said O.M. of MoD
was meant only for military officers on their re-
employment within Armed
Forces. In this context, I humbly refer to enclosed
judgment of Hon'ble
Supreme Court of India on Civil Appeal No 3744 of 2016
dated
08.12.2017(Annexure XVII) on admissibility of MACP on
similar lines. In
this judgment, Hon'ble Supreme Court has held that
cabinet decisions
cannot be overridden/ modified through the means of any
executive order.
Hence, Department of Expenditure may like to take
cognizance of this
ruling while forwarding its views to DoPT. It is
imperative that the
issue of MSP while fixing PRP is handled now in the
spirit of above
judgment which would go a long way in avoiding future
litigation.
Methods of Pay Fixation
8.
Since, DoPT has proposed to consolidate, rationalise
and simplify
existing orders on pay fixation of re-employed ex-
servicemen (including
reservists and ex-combatant clerks) in a single policy
framework, we as
representatives of employees including re-employed ex-
servicemen, being a
major stake holder in the matter would like to suggest
that pay
fixation policy envisaged from 25.11.1958 to 30.06.1986
may be revived.
Accordingly, all re-employed ex-servicemen may be given
two options to
exercise, whichever may be beneficial to them and the
subject option
shall have a retrospective effect since 31.07.1986 at
the discretion of
affected ex-servicemen, as under :-
(a) Option I
- The initial pay, on re-employment shall be fixed at
the minimum of
the scale of pay prescribed for the post in which the
individual is
re-employed. After fixing the pay as above, in case the
initial pay is
lesser than the last pay drawn (pre-retirement pay),
such cases are to
be treated as causing undue hardship, the pay is to be
fixed at a higher
stage by granting one increment for each year of
service rendered by
him, so as to bring the initial pay at par with the
pre-retirement pay.
The pay so fixed is to be treated as "minimum of the
pay scale". In
addition to the above, the government servant is
permitted to draw
pension and all other forms of retirement benefits
including Dearness
Relief on pension which he is eligible.
(b) Option II
- The initial pay of a re-employed pensioner shall be
fixed in the time
scale of the re-employed post at a stage equivalent to
the stage that
would have been reached by putting in the Civil Posts,
the number of
completed years of service rendered in the posts in the
Armed Forces.
The pay so fixed will not be restricted to the 'pre-
retirement pay'. The
pension (including pension equivalent retirement
benefit) may be
reduced from the pay so fixed after ignoring an amount
of Rs.15000/- as
proposed by DOPT. In addition to the above, the
government servant is
permitted to draw pension and all other forms of
retirement benefits
including Dearness Relief on pension which he is
eligible. (The amount
of ignorable part of pension and PEG for pensioners
re-employed prior to
01.01.2016 will remain at Rs.4000/-).
9. It is
requested that the proposals of this Confederation may
kindly be
considered on merit while formulating DoE views for
onward submission to
DoPT. I am hopeful that appropriate policy would be
formulated in
consonance with the spirit of government orders in
vogue till 1986.
Thanking You
Encl: As stated.
Yours faithfully,
(M. Krishnan,)
Member, Standing Committee,
National Council JCM &
Secretary General,
Confederation of Central Government Employees &
Workers.
Mob: 09447068125, Email:
mkrishnan6854@gmail.com
Source - http://confederationhq.blogspot.in/
